


Lawless

by kuchenackerman



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: ACKERMAN FAMILY, Action, Art in Fic, Blood and Violence, Crimes & Criminals, Drama, Eremika - Freeform, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, Humor, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rebels, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2019-05-16 02:23:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 75,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14802566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuchenackerman/pseuds/kuchenackerman
Summary: Despite his youth, Eren Jaeger is one of the best and most popular doctors of the Kingdom. Among those interested on his services is included a recognized criminal clan, which does not hesitate to use the youngest of the Ackerman as bait. Eren never imagined that this "harmless" girl in red dress would get him into so much trouble, turning his world upside down.~Lawless art by LolakasaStory re-published on AO3 since May, 2018, because I'm an idiot and deleted it from here after posting about 2 or 3 chapters a while ago.





	1. Crimson

**Author's Note:**

> All the beautiful fanart attached to this story belongs to [Lolakasa](https://lolakasa.tumblr.com), who made it exclusively for Lawless ❤ and is shared here with her permission. You can check all her Lawless fanart and my fic related edits [here](https://kuchenackerman.tumblr.com/tagged/lawless+art) and listen to the playlist [over here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl4gZvBs456SHXesyzaGefnFx7fNtOg2x).
> 
> _I originally published this story on FFnet and AO3 in late August, 2015 and decided to post it again on AO3 starting in late May, 2018._

[ ](http://lolakasa.tumblr.com/post/164946559315/pichochona-i-drew-a-cover-for)

 

Mikasa hit the wall hard. In spite of it, the coldness of the bricks did little against her accumulated body heat. Today's training had been tough since she had to battle against the stockiest and tallest man at Kenny's service.

Will, who was practically a beast of a man, lay face down on the floor. Blood dripping from his broken nose.

"Is he dead?"

The girl shook her head slightly, without even looking at the man approaching the scene. She needed to catch her breath and calm her heart rate. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her forearm while she thought that _yeah, she could have killed him_. The idiot would have deserved it only for trying to be too clever.

"He should be dead, huh?" murmured the man in an expressionless tone, but Mikasa knew him well enough to perceive his simmering anger.

"The fucking pig". Levi turned Will over easily with a foot, without any care at all, so he could check his face. Mikasa had done a good job wrecking that stupid face, the guy was going to look uglier than before. Usually when a training session ended like this, it was because the practice puppets had said something disgusting to her or tried something they shouldn't have.

Although she knew that some of the guys Kenny sent as human punching bags were precisely chosen so she could learn to defend herself under complicated and stifling circumstances; a thing that she no longer considered necessary. She was completely capable of defending herself, and she was fed up with it. With this attack, she's managed to send the message Kenny was expecting her to give.

Because of Will's size, it took more time than usual for Mikasa to knock him out. Levi had wanted to be present at the training, but she asked him to trust in her abilities, and so he did.

"This is the last one of the week, maybe of the month," said Mikasa as she passed him by, walking toward the exit, "Or definitely the last one".

_She was dangerous. She was an Ackerman._

"Oi, brat-"

 _Don't mess with the Ackerman_ , Kenny used to repeat with a smirk.

"I want to be alone," she cut him off.

Levi followed her with his eyes for a moment, then squinted back toward the subject at his feet. He let out a snort when he noticed the nauseating state of the floor, spotted with blood and rancid sweat. He could even see a few teeth not far away.

The youngest of the Ackermans walked rapidly through the dark corridor, observing that farther ahead Kenny's office door was slightly ajar. She could perceive the dim light of the room and the smell of burnt tobacco. She also heard his snicker and some banging, the tell-tale sound of Kenny's favorite and ridiculous boots landing on the desk.

Mikasa moved cautiously to try and glimpse what was happening inside the office but before she could get to see anything, Kenny had spotted her.

"Oi! Stop sniffing around and get in!"

She issued a little snort; that old man always made her doubt her stealth ability.

Mikasa glanced down at herself. She was still wearing her training outfit and was extremely sweaty. The bandages that covered her knuckles were stained with someone else's blood. In truth, she wasn't even remotely presentable… and in this moment what she most wanted was to take off her clothes, have a bath and read something. She did not want to socialize.

Nevertheless, she felt too much curiosity to simply decline the invitation. It wasn't often that Kenny had visitors—and she could tell he had one now since the door was left slightly ajar. Kenny only did that when he had company. He said it was for the _tranquility of the visitor_. Supposedly.

In the interior, Kenny smoked from his pipe with his feet rested on the shabby desk, while in front of him sat a handsome, tall and muscular blond man with his hair combed neatly back. As the girl entered the room, the stranger scrutinized her face with intense blue eyes and, after some seconds, gave her a cordial smile.

"Miss, my name is Erwin Smith," he introduced himself, standing automatically so he could offer her his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Mikasa..." she started to introduce herself, glancing at Kenny who nodded with a proud smile. The girl shook the man's hand with less strength than she expected. It seemed that she actually was exhausted. "Mikasa Ackerman."

Erwin Smith noted the dirt and blood on her hands but was not fazed in the least.

"Good," Kenny said, "I just wanted you to know this guy. Go take a shower and do your girly stuff. Whatever. Later we'll talk about tomorrow's mission. It includes a cute dress."

The girl openly rolled her eyes and turned around, saying a polite goodbye to Mr. Smith. She could almost imagine what type of mission it would be.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

"Doctor Jaeger!"

The young man turned around and noticed a little girl running impetuously towards him. She was carrying some flowers in a fist that she gave to him as soon as she reached him with a light blush, "Many thanks for healing my daddy!"

He smiled and caressed the girl's head, bending down to meet her height.

"You and your mother did all the hard work taking care for him for days. It's because of that he healed so quickly after my visit," he clarified, taking the flowers. "But thank you so much for the gift."

The girl nodded. The admiration and gratefulness reflected in her hazel eyes thrilled Eren, who was now more convinced that he'd never give up his volunteer work in the poorest districts of the Kingdom for a large house in royal grounds.

Despite the frequent offers, he wasn't interested in filling his pockets while exclusively taking care of the noble and high born, and he was not interested in living a quiet and sedentary life. His desire was to travel constantly. To live one month here and a week there, treating the people that couldn't afford to pay one of the few available doctors.

As he boarded the ship that would take him to Mitras, Paradis Kingdom's capital, he was able to see part of the house where he lived during a large part of his childhood. Now another family inhabited it, but he still allowed himself to fantasize that one day he'd knock on the door and he would be welcomed by nothing more and nothing less than his aged parents.

He let out a bitter smile and shook his head… visiting Shiganshina made him nostalgic, sentimental.

Noticing the orange tone of the sky, he realized it was almost time to set sail, so he decided to search among the boat - built for around a hundred people - for a particular blond headed passenger.

He found him easily a moment later. Armin was sitting on a chair, absorbed in his reading, while a fat lady was looking at him disapprovingly. She was standing and there were no more available seats; the trip would take more than two hours.

Eren loudly cleared his throat but he couldn't catch his friend's attention.

"Hey, Armin…" he called.

The blond looked up immediately from his thick book, stood, and approached the brown haired boy, waving at him cheerfully. The lady took her chance and seated herself quickly, an action that Armin barely even noticed.

"Eren!" he greeted him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I thought you boarded the morning boat and that you were already at Mitras."

"I needed to visit more patients before leaving, you know," Eren replied. "Besides, having to leave Shiganshina so soon for such a stupid reason annoys me, so I just took my time."

Armin nodded and shrugged. He knew Eren wasn't fond of high society's frivolous parties, which he was bound to attend as a courtesy so they wouldn't think he was ungrateful.

"At least I'll be there as your companion, and I'm bringing my chessboard in case you want a rematch after last night's games." The pieces inside clattered playfully as Armin shook the closed board with enthusiasm.

"Armin," Eren groaned and playfully hit him on the arm.

"Ouch! And what else do you want us to do, dance? I d-don't know how to dance, I'll embarrass myself!"

"Historia taught you less than two months ago. You forgot already?" Eren asked while he nonchalantly sat down on the floor. He was exhausted, "I can't give you lessons from now til the night. What are you going to do if one of those daring girls asks you for a dance? It happened to me the last time and I accepted so I wouldn't offend her… unlike the time before that," he complained.

Armin shuddered a little thinking about the possibility.

"I'll ask Historia to hide me in a room or inside a wardrobe before the dance begins", he replied hastily. "That's what I'll do. Or I'll escape to the gardens."

Eren snorted mockingly and shook his head, giving his friend a lopsided smile.

"Crap, Armin. If I knew that you didn't remember how to dance, then I wouldn't have gotten you into this mess." He stared at the sky for a moment and closed his eyes, thinking that maybe he'll take a nap. He needed it. "I'm sorry mate, I'm too worn out to keep talking."

"It's okay, don't worry," Armin replied. "I'll stay by your side and read, and I'll make sure that nobody steps on you while they pass by."

"Mmh… mhh…"

Armin knew that Eren would not wake up even if someone did unintentionally step on him. He always slept soundly since he decided to take the place and responsibilities of his father. The poor boy worked so hard that he could sleep anywhere like a baby.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Wearing tuxedos, both young men arrived in time to present their invitations to the guards, and then to the butlers posted at the entrance hall, who requested they put on masks before going in.

The Reiss's white palace was undeniably magnificent, large and beautiful. In the interior of the ballroom, the vivid colors of the ladies' dresses gave a brilliant contrast to the white marbled floor and pastel toned roses, all part of the elegant decor.

There was food, drinks and flower arrangements on each of the long tables that surrounded the ballroom. Meanwhile, the orchestra performed refined and serene melodies in a kind of domed stage, making the ambience pleasant, despite the noise the conversation of the guests produced.

Armin was captivated and offended at the same time by the opulence, even though it was not the first time he assisted his friend at one of these parties. Eren was talking with a noble men who'd recognized him when they entered and begun talking about things that Eren wasn't remotely interested in.

Meanwhile, Armin decided to walk around in case he found Historia. He hoped to ask her to help him avoid the embarrassment of the dance when the time comes. She would understand.

"I knew that Doctor Jaeger was invited, but I haven't seen him"

Armin heard the voice of a girl, so he stopped his search out of curiosity.

Eren was extremely popular among girls, but he never seemed to be aware of that. He was dedicated to only do his job.

"I haven't seen him either, what a pity," sighed another girl, "He must be looking so handsome, especially today."

"Yes! But with these masks, it's difficult to recognize anyone…"

"True, but at the same time everything is more fun and mysterious, isn't it?"

"Yes, I guess," said the girl that first mentioned Eren, "I wish the doctor asked me to dance with him tonight."

He chuckled to himself. Poor girls; Eren couldn't be less interested in dancing and spending his time with people in a romantic sense.

"Ugh, Historia Reiss is so fortunate. There are a lot of rumors about her and him, like they're going to marry some day or that they're already a couple."

Armin almost spat his drink and, to his bad luck, he caught the attention of the girls. He coughed dramatically for a few seconds, pretending to be sick, so the girls moved away so as not to catch the flu, or whatever _that stranger_ had.

Beside him, a pale girl dressed in a red gown and mask offered him a serviette. She wore her black hair combed into a high bun.

"Oh, t-thanks!"

She gave him a small, pretty smile, framed with crimson lips.

"I saw you arrive with Doctor Jaeger, but I lost sight of him a few moments ago," she commented point-blankly to him. "Everything was the fault of an old moneybag who decided it was a good idea to offer me money in exchange for a kiss."

Armin raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

She nodded, looking at him directly with her dark and deep eyes through the rabbets of her mask. Even if he couldn't see much of her face, she had to be a very, very beautiful girl. Armin couldn't help but to look at her cleavage unconsciously.

"Do you have any idea of where doctor Jaeger is?" she asked smoothly. "I'm dying to meet him…"

Armin looked up immediately and scouted for Eren in the crowd. He could see him talking with Historia near a thick marble pillar.

"He's there, with Historia Reiss, see?" Armin replied, pointing in their direction. "I don't know if it would be appropriate to interrupt them. After all, she's a princess and - Hey!"

The mysterious girl in the showy, red dress left him speaking alone. When she was about to reach the place where Eren and Historia were, Armin saw her trip. Several of the attendees that were near exclaimed upon seeing her fall and some men rushed to help her but Eren reached her first.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Mikasa let out a small cry of pain before hearing Eren Jaeger ask her if she was okay. He helped her to stand up carefully, while Historia Reiss gave him indications to help the _poor girl_ to seat near there and to verify that everything was fine.

"Eren, please accompany and examine her," the heir of the Reiss family directed. "I'll be back in a few minutes, my father wants me to meet some people… Miss, I hope you're alright!" she said to Mikasa before leaving with an apologetic look.

"Are you alright? Does anything hurt?" Eren asked her while he took off the stupid mask.

For a moment, Mikasa felt a slight unease when she was directly confronted with his large, worried, emerald eyes.

"No… the truth is that I don't feel fine," she murmured, bringing a hand to her head. "I think I need a bit of fresh air. I'm feeling dizzy."

"Okay, I'll help you to the terrace. Can you walk properly?"

The girl moaned when she put her right foot on the floor, so Eren held her by the waist and helped her to move. Since the night was cold, the terrace was empty when they arrived.

"Come, let's sit here for a moment," he said while he helped her onto a stone bench. "Please, let me check your ankle." Eren crouched down and carefully took one of her heeled shoes off. His delicate brush made Mikasa blush and she involuntarily dodged a new touch. "Does it hurt here?"

"A bit," she lied, averting her gaze.

"It could be a mild sprain," he pointed out, and in that instant he noticed that the girl's shoulders were bared.

Mikasa watched as Eren took off his jacket and gently placed it around her shoulders.

"You said you have dizziness, did you drink much?"

"Nothing at all."

"Any possibility of being pregnant?"

"What? No!" she almost yelled.

Eren blinked in surprise. "It's okay, I was just asking. It seemed like you passed out, and because of that you lost your balance and fell."

Eren remembered that when he was talking with Historia, she told him that there was an elegant girl dressed in a red gown coming to where they were, so he followed the blonde's gaze but, in that same moment, the girl in the red dress tumbled over just before them.

"I certainly didn't feel well. There's a lot of people and noise inside, and that's a bit suffocating to me," said the young lady aside him. She took off the crimson mask, "But I feel better already. Thanks," she smiled at him slightly.

The boy nodded slowly, contemplating her delicate features and how the darkness of her eyes stood out in contrast with the snowy tone of her skin. Weirdly, it seemed to him that it wasn't the first time that he saw her. He wasn't sure if he had seen her at another of those parties or in another place.

Maybe in the streets.

Maybe a long time ago.

Eren couldn't remember when, nor where, he just knew that those features weren't common and were difficult to forget. He was about to ask her if they'd met before, but then realized that he'd forgotten to ask her something.

"Oh! By the way, what's your name? I'm Eren. Eren Jaeger."

The mysterious girl let out a little bitter smile. It lasted only a moment and was almost imperceptible, but he managed to see it.

"I know perfectly well who you are, Eren Jaeger," she snapped coldly, in a different tone compared to the one she'd used since the beginning. Her face was now stoic, "My name is Mikasa," she informed, somewhat reluctantly.

"… Mikasa?" even though in this instant he wasn't able to think straight, he had the faint thought of recognizing that name.

But then a penetrating sickly-sweet smell filled nostrils. Mikasa moved closer and embraced him, leaning her head on one of his shoulders. The action surprised Eren, making him open his mouth slightly to take a deep breath of adulterated air that only confused him further.

"I'm sorry, Eren," he heard Mikasa whisper in his ear. She covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief, soaked with a substance that he realized was the source of the smell.

As soon as he lost consciousness, Mikasa did a quick whistle after which a man of short stature came out of hiding behind some bushes.

"Finally," he complained sourly while approaching her.

She simply squinted her eyes, took off her shoes and hastened to follow him.

Levi carried Eren on one shoulder as if he weighed nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Lawless Cover](http://lolakasa.tumblr.com/post/164946559315/pichochona-i-drew-a-cover-for) original Tumblr post by Dani - Lolakasa


	2. Abduction

After waiting for the two guards that patrolled the area to move far enough away, Mikasa and Levi hurried until they reached an elegant carriage parked near a zone of lush vegetation.

Several meters ahead, the access' sentinels were trying to politely reason with three provocative women. They stubbornly insisted that they were invited to the party, although they lacked an invitation that could prove it and they weren't even wearing appropriate wardrobe for the occasion.

The coachman raised an eyebrow when he noted that Levi was carrying someone who didn't offer any resistance.

"Is that one dead? Injured?" the coachman whispered with some concern and glanced at the guards, who were distracted with the prostitutes that he himself brought to the Palace.

"Shut up and make these horses move their asses," said Levi seating at his side, after he deposited Eren Jaeger inside the carriage. Mikasa was boarding it at that moment.

Levi was dressed similarly to the man who held the reins of the horses.

"It's just that I would not want him to... stain the upholstery," the coachman insisted, anxious.

"Don't fuck with me, your upholstery is already disgusting," Levi glanced at him reproachfully and then turned around. "Mikasa, I left you a change of clothes in there."

The aforementioned just nodded, forgetting for a moment that Levi couldn't see her from the outside.

"Okay," she answered, absorbed while she stroked the silky red cloth that covered her legs.

Mikasa liked the dress a lot. She felt so, so feminine wearing it. She loved the entire outfit, it was beautiful. The dark shoes, the red dress and her intricate high hairstyle.

She almost felt like a lady. Almost, because of _lady_ she had nothing, even with that outfit she could only pretend to be one. Besides, she could never get used to wearing high heels. She had only been wearing them for a short while and already her feet were becoming resentful.

"Have a good night, gentlemen!" she heard the coachman say merrily, probably to the sentinels. She didn't hear Levi say anything, as expected.

Mikasa tried to take a look at the unconscious boy in front of her, who she laid down on the wide seat. It was difficult to visualize details in midst of a darkness to which her sight wasn't adjusted yet. Anyway, it was evident that the irregular movement of the carriage made Eren's head bounce rhythmically on the worn padding, so Mikasa knelt beside him and put a little pillow under his head.

It was then when she realized that he was just wearing a white shirt and a black tie, since she still had his black jacket on her shoulders. When she removed the garment, she was invaded by a fetching and musky scent. Instinctively, Mikasa brought the fabric to her nose and inhaled softly to perceive a citric vestige, at the same time that she closed her eyes. The fragrance transported her to the past, to the times in which the sensation of security, tranquility and naïve happiness were a constant in her life… When she still lived with her parents.

The carriage took a leap and the shaking pulled her out of her little lethargy. She quickly covered Eren with the jacket and verified that he was still asleep. She paid special attention to his measured breathing. Everything seemed to be all right.

The girl caressed for a last time the lustrous fabric that clung to her waist - it loosened under her hips and its length didn't get to cover her ankles.

After a listless sigh she proceeded to unbutton her back, not without some difficulty.

"Fucking buttons" she murmured to herself, since the last pair to unbutton was giving her problems.

The front side of the dress had fallen and it no longer exerted any pressure on her naked torso, so she just turned the dress to finish undoing everything. She didn't want to unintentionally damage it. Thankfully, her sight had adjusted to the dim light and she managed to smoothly solve the problem.

Suddenly she realized the boy was moving, so she immediately covered herself with her arms and glanced at him, distressed, because he seemed to have his eyelids half open. She approached him, ready to punch him and knock him out, but Eren didn't even try to dodge the fist that remained just a few centimeters from his nose. To Mikasa's relief he was still unconscious, as it should be. She grabbed his jacket and covered his whole face anyways, just in case.

Maybe Eren Jaeger was that kind of weird person that slept with their eyes open.

Meanwhile, the girl finished removing the dress and quickly put on a shirt, sweater and black pants.

They arrived late-night to an area of small houses located near the border of Orvud, a district to the north of Mitras. The full moon lit the dusty entrance of the structure, next to which a man with a wrinkled face was sitting wrapped in a blanket. When he saw Mikasa get out of the carriage, he showed her a smile that was missing some teeth.

"Good night, missy," he saluted her with a nod of his head.

"Good night, Arnie," she answered with some kindness. "Have you had supper?"

"Yeah, a jug of wine and a delicious chicken!"

"Good," she smiled slightly at him and her stomach rumbled at the mention of food. She had not had time to eat at the Reiss' party, let alone drink anything. She was famished.

Inside the small house, she proceeded to give a series of rhythmic knocks on a part of the wall that happened to be a camouflaged door between two furnishings and behind a small table, on which there was a plate with chicken bones and a clay jug.

The door opened with a squeak and from the other side they were received by the ever serious Tom, a bald man with a black moustache and beard. Since Levi was carrying Eren, Mikasa allowed him to go in first. She went down the deteriorating steps and followed him through the poorly illuminated tunnel - with soil floor and rock walls - until they ran into an iron door already opened and flanked by two men as silent as the first one.

As they passed the entry, to their left it was possible to hear some hysterical laughter, banging on tables and an out of tune man singing with extreme emotion.

Both Levi and Mikasa rolled their eyes and turned in the opposite direction, to a short corridor, in which they soon reached a thick metal and dark wood door.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Eren slowly opened his eyes.

Stunned, he realized that he was sitting on a chair with armrests, to which his wrists were tied. His ankles were tied to the forelegs of the chair.

_What…?_

No, he wasn't even dreaming.

 _But, what the hell?_ He thought, irritated.

He tried to look around. It was a small room, with a bed stuck to the left wall, while the opposite wall was less than a meter away from him. He turned his head and at his back he could notice that on a bedside table there was a candle, barely illuminating the place.

In front of him there wasn't much he could see, since his own body blocked what little light there was, but the entrance to the room should have been in that direction. It was a windowless room, narrow and long, and there was at least two more meters of it onward.

 _This shit again_ , Eren frowned and felt how the rage overpowered him.

An abduction.

"Another damn time!" he complained, clenching his teeth while he stirred on the chair trying to loosen the ropes.

"We hope this is the last time"

Eren stilled immediately upon hearing the soft feminine voice, without putting much attention to the spoken words. He had thought he was alone.

His surprise didn't last long though, because the annoyance of being in his present situation came back. Realizing that it was the voice of _that girl_ infuriated him even more.

"Mikasa," he pronounced her name in a tone tinged of rage. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? What kind of game is this?"

She had deceived him. She had taken advantage of his goodwill and concern. She had taken him for an idiot.

The girl didn't answer so Eren insisted, making a poor attempt to control his anger.

"Where am I?" demanded the boy. "What do you want from me?"

From one moment to another - and to his bewilderment - Mikasa was standing just in front of him, sudden like the attack of a viper. Eren would have fallen back from the shock if he wasn't tied to a chair.

Mikasa stood without saying or doing anything other than staring at him, expressionless. The only thing that moved was the orange dancing flame reflected in her dark eyes. Her pale and perfect face, now without makeup, almost seemed like an alabaster modeled statue. The ebony hair surpassed her shoulders by several centimeters.

"You're in the Ackerman's residency" she informed him, monotonous.

Eren's eyes went wide and felt his heartbeat suddenly altered. 

He recalled the smile and the teasing tone of Kenny Ackerman, the tall and skinny man about whom he had heard tales during his childhood - Kenny the Ripper. The strong and ruthless assassin that nearly three decades ago had blood stained the streets of the wealthy and safest neighborhoods of the Kingdom.

It seemed to Eren that he could smell the tobacco stink that characterized Kenny, so he closed his eyes and pressed his eyelids together hard for a while, reliving the deep terror he felt as a child upon learning the identity of his kidnapper.

"But… but my father is dead. The dead can't make deals," he murmured, half opening his lost eyes.

Mikasa was gone, camouflaged again in the shadows of the room.

"We know that," she stated, feeling a sadness that she tried not to show on her voice, even though Eren could barely hear her.

Doctor Grisha Jaeger had been the first person she met apart from her parents, and he had always been very kind to her. On one occasion, he told her that he had a son that was about her same age, and that his name was Eren.

The last time the doctor had visited her home, he had promised her that he would bring his son with him in his next visit, so they could know each other. So they could be friends.

It never happened.

"What does Kenny Ackerman want from me?" Eren asked, jaded.

He was sidelong glancing towards the shadows, frowning.

"For you to work with us," Mikasa replied simply.

"Ha! Come on…" the green eyed boy scoffed, "You can have me abducted any time you want, even torture me or kill me. Whatever, I refuse to collaborate with a group of murderers, with a pack of beasts disguised as humans."

Eren heard the squeak of rusty hinges and then a thud of wood against wood. Mikasa had left the room, but he didn't hear her locking the door or running a latch.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Mikasa found Levi in the kitchen. He was drinking tea in silence near a counter.

"What are you doing here?" Levi asked her after taking a long sip.

"I just came to look for something for him to eat and drink."

"Tch, that's not how things work."

The man looked at the girl as she poured water into a glass and put a large piece of bread next to a slice of cheese on a plate.

"It doesn't matter," she said.

When Mikasa returned to the room she found that Eren had diagonally fallen with the chair on the edge of the bed. He glared at her furiously from his ridiculous position and she struggled to contain the laughter. His fury in this context didn't daunt anyone but it was rather funny.

The poor boy must have been shaking in the chair like crazy trying to release himself during the time she left him alone.

"Are you hungry?" Mikasa passed him by and put the things she brought on the bedside table.

"No," Eren groaned "I don't want anything from you."

Ignoring his anger, Mikasa moved behind him and returned the chair to its normal position without major effort. Seconds after she started to untie his hands and feet in complete silence. As soon as Eren was released, he ran towards the door, but Mikasa promptly took him by his wrist, put a hand on his back and slammed him against the wall.

"Don't try anything stupid," she warned, as she bent his arm behind his back.

"And what… do you want me… to do?" Eren questioned with some difficulty, since he has his stomach and his chest pressed against the wall, plus half of his face. That girl was strong. "Do you want me… to stay seated… and chill?"

"Yeah," she said, releasing him.

Eren turned around rubbing his cheek as he glanced at her warily.

"I know I didn't had the chance to go further that door," he admitted out of humor, leaning himself on the wall as he crossed his arms.

"Good."

Eren just wanted to try complicating things a bit, to show her that he wouldn't surrender so easily. Whatever. So he leaped on the girl, but she dodged him with ease.

All of a sudden, Eren's feet had left the ground and - from one moment to another - he had fell on the bed. He sat on the mattress immediately and gazed at Mikasa, dumbfounded.

She was far faster and far stronger than him.

"Good night," Mikasa said as she nonchalantly settled a strand of hair behind her ear.

She was a weird and certainly conceited girl.

This time, Eren heard her lock the door from the outside. He brought his hands to his head, exasperated, then pressed a pillow to his face so he could suffocate a yell full of anger and desperation.

He didn't know when he fell asleep, but he was woken up by the annoying smell of tobacco. A bit disoriented, Eren pinched his nose and sat up on the bed.

"Nice shirt and tie," Kenny said, sitting on the same chair Eren had been tied up in the night before. Behind him, the door was open and an orange light streamed in from the hallway. "So much time living under the wing of the Reiss people has given you a taste for refinement, huh?"

Eren frowned without saying a word. Kenny had more wrinkles on his face now, but he was wearing almost the same outfit he wore the first time he met him, including his stupid boots and his black hat.

"I see Mikasa treated you well," the Ripper said, noticing the untouched water and bread. A teasing tone was palpable on his voice, "You can't rely too much on teenagers."

The leader of the Ackerman took out a curved knife from inside his jacket and nonchalant started to play in a skillful way with it. The light flashed on the edge of the blade.

"So?" he said to the young man, "Don't you have any questions to ask?"

"No. You all can go to Hell," Eren blurted with a defiant look.

Kenny laughed out loud for a while, until he stood up and took Eren by the collar of his shirt, dragging him off the bed.

Kenny held him up with one hand. The boy struggled.

"You're gonna live and cooperate with us, whether you want to or not."

He dropped Eren to the ground when he realized that he could barely breathe. As Eren coughed, Kenny threw him a small yellowing envelope that fell on his lap.

"He asked me to protect you, among other stuff," Kenny informed. "Obviously, in exchange I want you to treat my men whenever they're injured or when they fall ill… And I want you to give me some information," he added the last sentence with a lopsided smile.

" _Him_?" Eren questioned, confused. He took the envelope with his free hand while rubbing his throat with the other one.

Who the hell was he talking about? And to protect him from what or whom? Because, if there was anyone you needed protection from, it was from Kenny and his criminal association.

"Read the damn letter. I'll come back later."

Eren approached the light of a new candle on the bedside table, which someone must have changed while he was sleeping. He carefully extracted a piece of folded paper from the inside of the envelope, and his eyes widened as he recognized the calligraphy of his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Kidnapped Eren fanart](http://lolakasa.tumblr.com/post/170886575325/this-is-kind-of-a-mess-lol-but-its-xios) on Tumblr, by Lolakasa <3


	3. Ackerman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Dirndl: traditional German (Bayern) and Austrian dress.

Armin had slept for an hour on a sofa when he heard someone knocking on the door and calling his name.

He rubbed his eyes a few times. Opening the door he saw the haggard and tired look of his - until then - missing friend. He also met the dark and inscrutable eyes of his unknown companion, a beautiful girl with her black hair braided to one side. She was wearing an indigo traditional dirndl which had little white polka dots, under whose bodice jutted out a crisp white blouse that covered her bust and shoulders.

In silence, he allowed both of them into the apartment and then closed the door.

Armin gave a confused look at the girl and waited for Eren to say something, for him to explain what had happened and at least to introduce the girl. The stranger didn't seem interested in talking to him at all. She was quietly devoted herself to examining the apartment. He almost introduced himself, but decided it was better not to annoy her with polite conversation that - he had the impression - she would probably ignore.

He looked intently at them both without knowing what exactly to say, since the first things that came to his mind were nothing but indecent suspicions. Eren had disappeared and he hadn't been alone, the mysterious girl in the red dress had also been missing. She was the last person the attendants had seen his friend with. And looking at him now, Eren was a mess: his shirt was out of his pants and it was wrinkled like his tie. He was disheveled and he seemed exhausted.

"Maybe they had an immediate infatuation and they fled together," Historia had suggested last night, grinning at the thought and allaying the more serious concerns that had made her shed a few tears, "Could it be?"

Historia and Armin looked at each other and couldn't help a giggle that allowed to lift the atmosphere.

"It's something difficult to imagine, because we're talking about Eren, but… Sure, it could be a possibility," Armin said while he stuck his hands inside the pockets of his soft cloth pants.

Before conceiving such a positive idea, they had already thought about the worst scenario. They imagined that Eren had been abducted and that his captors would demand a ransom in gold within days – that if they hadn't already killed him. And after such ill-fated ideas, Historia and Armin had tried to focus on the fact that the security levels of the Palace were quite high and even higher during special events, so the likelihood of an actual abduction occurring was very low.

But for Armin Arlert there was something that didn't quite fit, and it was that no one knew the identity of the girl in the red dress, even though that uncertainty was obviously expected at a masquerade ball.

According to Historia, some noblemen used these thematic parties so their most timid daughters, some of whom had recently came of age, could have a good time with decreased social pressure. Nevertheless, Armin realized that this was also the perfect opportunity to evade Palace's security by impersonating a random nobleman and falsifying an identity. For him it seemed absurd that anyone could believe these kind of parties were completely safe to make.

"Eren…" Armin muttered suddenly, returning to the present moment. He felt relieved to see his friend safe and sound though, at the same time, he felt a bit overwhelmed. "Last night you vanished and we feared for you with the passing of the hours. Where were you? At what point did you leave? Nobody saw you leave the Palace's grounds."

He was confused, since there was still the possibility that Historia's romantic idea wasn't as far from reality as he thought. Although Eren didn't seem in love - and much less happy – so maybe neither did the girl.

Armin was so lost in his musings that he didn't realize Eren was packing his belongings inside a large suitcase, one that he hadn't used in years. Why?

"She's Mikasa, the _damsel in distress_ , do you remember her?" Eren finally presented her, making use of a sarcastic tone and speaking loudly so she could hear him, "I guess you don't care, but this is my best friend, Armin."

"We met last night," Mikasa said, getting close to Armin. Her voice was as soft and calm as her demeanor while she peered into Armin's bright blue eyes. "I said to him that  _I was dying_  to meet you, and he helped me to find you."

Eren slightly squeezed the red scarf he had been folding. Maybe she had said that in order to bother him, but her words made him feel a certain restlessness in his chest. Moreover, after reading his father's letter and remembering that Mikasa was the girl that-

"What happened?" Armin asked suddenly. He was upset, "Eren? Mikasa?"

The girl's fingers lightly caressed the cover of a book, as if there wasn't anything odd happening. As if the atmosphere of the room haven't changed in the least and as if the three of them didn't perceive the silent longing for something that should have been, but was not.

"It's almost time to go," Mikasa said, maintaining her uninterested and impassible disposition, "If you're going to explain things to him, do it fast. I'll wait outside and help you with the baggage once you're ready."

As soon as the girl left the apartment, Eren took a deep breath and flopped onto the same sofa where Armin had been sleeping. He let his head fall back.

"Mikasa was that girl that lived in the highland of Shiganshina," Eren started to explain, trying to conceal the bitterness that the grave situation gave to him and dealing with his impotence for not being able to do anything about it. "The girl that my father wanted me to meet."

"The girl whose family moved shortly before you came to know her?"

Eren sighed and shook his head, running a hand through his hair.

"My father lied to me about that, and he hid a few more things from me. He left me a letter." He scowled as he stood up to close the large suitcase. "I don't have time to explain or tell you everything I know, but in summary: Mikasa isn't a fragile nor an innocent girl. After I helped her last night, she drugged me, abducted me and then I got to meet Kenny Ackerman again, who happens to be her uncle."

Armin's eyes widened when he heard the name of the Ripper.

Shit. This had nothing to do with the naïve notion of a pair of lovers who fled from the tumult to kiss each other in secret. No.

 _Kenny Ackerman. Kenny the Ripper. This is serious. This is so serious._  Armin thought as his heartbeats went wild.

Eren continued. "Kenny is a nutty old guy and my father, for some reason I still cannot comprehend, made a kind of deal with him so he… so he could protect me. I know it's strange but I can't give any more details right now."

Clearly disturbed, the blond boy nodded and took Eren by the shoulders, inadvertently burying his fingertips in the process.

"Eren, just promise me that you'll be careful," Armin asked him. Anguish was reflected on his face.

There was not much else to say or to do about this. Eren was in the clutches of a criminal clan whose existence was an open secret, a clan that practically existed under its own rules and government, to the point that not even the Military Police interfered in its affairs.

Kenny Ackerman should have been hanged in a public square years ago, but that didn't happen. The Royal Family saw itself forced to cancel the arrest and execution warrant soon after Kenny and his men annihilated about twenty policemen in one night. They no longer speak about them, let alone write about them and much less pursue any member of the Ackerman Clan.

Eren hugged his best friend tightly in an attempt to calm him down.

"I'll be fine. They won't hurt me." Eren stated, even though he wasn't sure at all. He released Armin slowly and moved away. "Before I leave, I'll need you to do me a big favor…"

A bit calmer now, Armin raised an eyebrow when he noticed that Eren's cheeks were slightly colored and that he avoided his gaze. Armin stayed quiet until his friend deigned to speak after an exasperated snort.

"It's something absurd, but necessary." Eren awkwardly excused himself from the beginning, "It's about starting a stupid rumor. You have to say that… that Mikasa and I- That I…"

Armin saw him blushing furiously and struggling with himself.

"Obviously, you should not mention Mikasa's name, you may say that…" he inhaled a bit of air, "That I fell for a certain Margot. I need Rod Reiss to think that I'm out of my mind. I don't know how to explain it because it's a shitty plan, it was damn Kenny's idea, but I know you can come up with something better than that, and less ridiculous, right?"

Armin's anxiety levels dropped and a small grin started to take form in his lips.

Although he still needed to gather more information, the fact that Grisha Jaeger - the wise Doctor Jaeger - trusted in a murderer of Kenny's caliber seemed strange to him, right now the modus operandi that started during the Reiss' party made sense. From Mikasa's apparition as the striking red dress girl and her later fall, to Eren's disappearance and his arrival to the apartment that morning in her company… Some residents from that neighborhood in the middle of Mitras may already have seen them together.

Therefore, the point had always for the girl not to go unnoticed and for everyone to see Eren helping her. Then for several of the attendees to learn of their sudden absence. And, especially, for Rod Reiss to find out about it.

If a young pair disappears at the same time and they disappear together, what's the first thing that comes to someone's mind?

Armin knew that it was not even necessary to start the rumor, because it must have already began to spread the night before, and that all this was nothing but a smokescreen.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

The coachman assisted Eren with his baggage. Mikasa was already waiting inside the carriage, as any lady would do. After storing the suitcase in which he had kept his clothes, Eren grabbed his medical bag, he put one foot on the metallic sill and clung to the edge of the coach door to push off.

"Let me help you, sir," offered the coachman.

Eren shook his head. "Thanks, but I can go up alone."

The coachman tried to help him anyway. When he was inside, the man gazed at Mikasa and whispered to Eren: "I'm glad to know that you're alive, sir."

Eren looked at him, a bit confused. It was the first time he heard him speak, since on the outward journey the man had only offered him an anxious smile, the same he was giving to him now. He was a middle-aged man with a dark moustache and a graying beard. Most of his hair was hidden under an elegant short brimmed hat.

"Uhm, thanks," Eren said while he seated inside of the carriage, leaving a distance between him and Mikasa.

The girl remained silent and looked in the opposite direction from him.

Outside, the coachman carefully closed the side door.

"His name is Gustav," Mikasa said softly, almost without any energy and still looking the other way. "He always seems to be anxious. Last night he thought you were dead."

Eren just let a little  _oh_  escape from his mouth as he settled into the seat. He didn't know what to say about it. He was annoyed, remembering that she had made him lose consciousness while simulating a harmless hug. It made him angry to remember how she had played the  _damsel in distress_  so well.

Despite that, he knew that while she had participated in the plan, it wasn't really her fault. Still, Eren couldn't help but feel some resentment towards the girl and towards her whole clan. They were criminals, after all. Criminals in which his father - for some fucking weird reason - had placed all his confidence.

In the brief letter, Grisha had asked him to especially trust in Mikasa because, according to him, her  _sweet and noble essence_  would never be altered. That had been his father's theory at least.

 _Sweet…,_  Eren thought while releasing a small snort. In general, that girl gave the impression of anything but sweetness.

He squinted at her. She remained impassible, with her hands on her lap while she contemplated the landscape through the window on her side. Fine, maybe the feminine dress that she was wearing and the little braid could generate a certain effect of  _sweetness_ , and surely that was what she was looking for… besides appearing to be a  _normal_ and defenseless girl.

Eren decided to look away, towards the window beside him, scolding himself for having forgotten such an important thing as that no one was exactly normal. Much less could she be a normal person, a girl who at a young age witnessed the murder of her own parents. Grisha didn't give more details except to note that since then Mikasa had lived with the only family she had left; Kenny, her uncle and Levi, her cousin.

After reading the missive certain things made more sense to him. For example, now he could comprehend why his father never mentioned Mikasa's family surname, and why when they were at home with mom he used to refer to Mikasa's family only as  _the family that lived in the highland_ – or  _in the mountains_. At the same time, it made sense that they lived so far away from the city, given that bearing the Ackerman surname constituted a disgrace, as well as the risk of being accused as murderers and enemies of the welfare of the Kingdom and its people, everything thanks to Kenny's negative reputation.

And this poor girl ended up being raised by Kenny himself…

Eren closed his eyes and went back in time. Ten years ago.

"You're a persistent brat, huh?" Kenny observed as he was nibbling a cigar, "But if you keep struggling with the ropes you're gonna hurt your wrists."

Eren could feel how the dry tears stretched the skin of his cheeks while he was still struggling with the ropes. He had been crying of anger just minutes ago.

"Before dying I'll fight, I'll die fighting!" he yelled with his childish voice, at which Kenny laughed heartily.

"Dammit, you damn kid. You're gonna kill me with laughter."

"Shut up!" he didn't tolerate being made fun of.

Kenny couldn't believe that the same little kid who - a couple of hours ago - had pissed himself after realizing his identity, now acted in such a rebellious and reckless way. It was enough to say that Eren Jaeger had even threatened to kill him,  _the Ripper_.

"I have to admit that you have guts," Kenny smiled, approaching the kid, "However, I already told you that I don't wanna kill you. I only care about talking with your old man because he's the fucking Doctor."

Eren spat. It landed some centimeters away from Kenny's boots, who ignored the action and started to wander through the room. The kid didn't take his eyes off the three sharp knifes dangling at the Ripper's waist, fantasizing that at any moment he would bury one of these in his throat due his daring and, in that way, he would put an end to his short life. Or to his father's life.

"You remind me a little of my nephew, you know?" Kenny said, "The boy already has at least twice your age, but he's almost your same height."

Eren's face turned into a grimace of confusion. Kenny grinned at him.

"Yeah, he's a fucking midget…" then he added with some sort of satisfaction, "A midget whom I'm proud of."

While Kenny wandered, Eren noticed that the door - a few meters away from him - was half opened and saw small pale fingers grabbing the edge of it. At the same time, a girl with straight black hair and dark eyes poked her head into the room. She looked at him in silence, with genuine curiosity.

"Uncle Kenny," she asked with a little sweet voice, "who is this?"

The Ripper didn't seem impressed by her presence.

"He's a guest. What are you doing here?" he asked with a certain weariness.

"He's tied…" she pointed out, confused.

Kenny took the girl in his arms and quickly took her away from there. She could have not been more than ten years old.

Eren opened his eyes, returning to the present moment. He felt the movement of the carriage as it advanced back to the Ackerman's lair. He settled himself in the seat again, since it already felt stiff.

When he turned his head to the left he realized that Mikasa was looking forward, probably concentrated in something.

Mikasa had obviously been that little girl, for whom Eren had expressed his concern once his father, safe and sound, arrived to demand his release. He recalled that Grisha had assured him that the girl would be alright, since she was part of Kenny's family and they would protect her.

Yes, maybe they protected her, fed her and dressed her, but a criminal clan would never be a good place for any child, much less for a girl whose essence was, supposedly,  _sweet and noble_.

How much sweetness could she have left after living in such a dark place in every sense, after growing up with guys like Kenny? And what nobleness could remain if-?

"What?" Mikasa asked abruptly, making Eren bounce a little in his place.

 _Shit, have I been staring at her or did I say something?_  Eren asked himself, feeling a slight warmth on his cheeks. He had been so lost in his memories and thoughts that he hadn't noticed anything, but he surely had been staring at her unconsciously. Nothing serious.

"Nothing," he replied, shrugging.

The girl scrutinized him for a moment.

"You should organize your stuff, eat and sleep when we arrive," she suggested in a neutral tone, "Your training begins tomorrow."

Eren raised an eyebrow.

"Training? Kenny didn't say anything about a training, he just said something about _protecting_  me from some unexistent threat in exchange for healing his… chums."

"The training is so you can learn to defend yourself."

The boy snorted and crossed his arms. "I know very well how to defend myself."

Mikasa just looked at him.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

"Keep both forearms up," ordered a guy called Volker, giving him a touch on the arm that he had let down slightly. "That's it, hit and defense. Hit and defense."

Volker, a tall redheaded man, was making Eren throw punches against a leather sack stuffed with sand. He also urged him to only move the trunk and his head from side to side to dodge imaginary punches.

Eren had no idea of how much time he had been doing that, he only knew that he could already feel the exhaustion and that he felt his arms, shoulders and abs fatigued. He was sweating.

A while later, two members of the gang came to sniff the first training of the  _Doc_ , as they nicknamed him that morning during the breakfast in which Doctor Jaeger did not exchange words with anyone, and only dedicated himself to eat.

" _Doc_ , the sack doesn't even swing with your punches," pointed out a burly tanned guy, called Luther. "You should hit it with more strength."

The other newcomer, Bernard, made fun of him. 

"I don't think he could manage to make it swing," Bernard commented to Luther in a low voice, "Look at him, he's a weakling."

Eren frowned and turned around to gaze-challenge Bernard.

"What was that you just said?" he demanded, offended.

Bernard laughed and gave Luther a nudge so he would laugh with him, but the guy didn't even take him into account. Besides, Bernard met with a gesture of disapproval from Volker.

"I said that you're a weakling," repeated Bernard, standing up and getting close to Eren. He ignored the lack of support from his colleagues.

Volker stood between Eren and the troublemaker.

"Are you an idiot or what?" questioned Volker. "Get out of here."

Bernard mumbled clenching his teeth.

"Whatever, I just said the truth," he said as he turned around to leave. Before he could even go through the doorway, Eren ran after him and knocked him down, falling on his back.

"Who do you think you're calling a weakling? You fucking moron," the boy groaned and gave him a punch on the back of the head. And then another one, and another one. And another one.

"Eren, stop it!" Volker exclaimed, while a laughing Luther lifted Eren so he would stop punching that idiot Bernard.

After a moment, Bernard stood, very pissed and a bit disoriented.

"Don't look at us that way, you started it," noted Luther as he still was restraining Eren.

"Yeah, whatever," the guy recognized, offering a hand to the son of Grisha Jaeger, "Okay! I'm sorry for calling you a weakling."

Luther let Eren go.

Eren adjusted his shirt and, after some hesitation, he shook Bernard's hand as a sign of truce.

But Bernard was a complicated man and as soon as everybody let down their guard, he took the chance to connect a powerful punch on Eren's cheekbone. The blow knocked him out immediately and Luther managed to hold him so he didn't fall on the floor.

Volker grabbed Bernard by the shoulders and slammed him against the wall. He was furious.

"You crazy son of a bitch! The fuck you think you're doing? Levi's gonna kick your ass!"

"Who's ass am I kicking?" asked Levi, who was cleaning his hands with a little white towel.

Everyone that was present in the room looked at him, startled, while Eren was lying unconscious on Luther's arms.

Levi noted that Eren's right cheekbone was swollen. The form of two red knuckles were printed on his skin. Right cheekbone, left fist. There was only one left-handed man between the three members of the gang that were in the event site.

"Luther," called Levi, expressionless. "Take Eren to Mikasa and get something cold for his bruise."

Luther nodded and left the room immediately, bringing the fallen boy with him, who was beginning to regain his consciousness.

"Volker," Levi spoke again, keeping a cool stare at Bernard, "Explain to me how it was that this idiot came to knockout our honorary member, while I hold the urge to break his damn neck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the old readers supporting the re-publishing of Lawless here in AO3 and the warmest welcome to the new readers of this fic, which I hope enjoy the upcoming chapters~
> 
> Thank you all so much for the bookmarks - what's up with the super-secret ones, though? :o-, subscriptions and kudos. Especial shout-outs to **That invisible gurl** and **SomnusWings** for their kind comments!


	4. Death

It was midday and the sky was overcast, just like how it looked at dawn. Historia closed her eyes and rested her temple on the cold damp glass of one of her room's windows.

"Eren…" she murmured, while in her lips a smile outlined. "Who would have thought about that?"

Historia couldn't completely believe it yet, but Armin himself had bothered to go and personally explain to her the situation, so it must be true: Eren had run away with an unknown girl, illogical as it seemed to her. Illogical because they were talking about him, the most awkward and uninterested in romance boy that could have ever existed.

She moved away from the window and her sight descended to the small rectangle of paper she was holding between her fingers. It had been folded again and again until it ended up in its small size.

Eren didn't understand a thing about romantic affairs, at least not when someone tried to involve him in one, but he used to make a small attempt to empathize with the matter when it was about the romance of someone else. Like Historia's case.

The girl was pleased and, at the same time, sad after receiving Armin's news. Although at the beginning Eren's well-being had concerned her, Historia was happy for him and for his sudden rashness. However, she saddened as she realized that the secret missive written by her own hand won't reach her addressee, given the messenger got involved in an improvised idyll.

Historia clicked her tongue, reproaching herself. She shouldn't be so selfish. It was better to celebrate the fact that her friend was experiencing an infatuation for the very first time in his life.

 _I must be glad for him and try to help him with anything I can_ , she told herself,  _just like how he has helped me._

The blonde went to the chimney where a big amount of orange embers were still glowing. A servant had stoked them in the early morning.

Historia grasped the rectangle of paper. Since no one could take it to her addressee anytime soon, the best thing to do was to get rid of it before someone else could find it and discover her private matter. The Kingdom of Paradis must not know that their one and only heir to the throne - the only alive daughter of the Reiss family - was not interested in the slightest in men.

 _Maybe one day I should do what Eren did_ , she thought as she appreciated how the flares devoured her intense words engraved with black ink on the paper.  _Run away with Ymir. Simply flee far away from here._

"Princess…"

She was called from the other side of the door. It was one of her maids.

"Come in," she said, not taking her eyes off the few ashes that were left from her letter.

"Princess, I am sorry for the interruption," the woman did a small reverence, "But Your Majesty is waiting for you. It is time for dinner."

Historia took a deep breath and smoothed her dress. "Thank you, I will be there immediately."

Her father - the King - didn't even take a look at her with his big eyes, not until she quietly sat at the table.

"Historia," Rod Reiss called her after taking a sip of his red wine glass, "A policeman has sent me a report, is it alright if we listen to it together?"

She looked sideways at her father, since he didn't use to ask for her opinion or her views about things as ordinary as the readings of Kingdom's reports.

"It is alright, father," she said, a bit taken aback.

Rod nodded and studied her for a while.

"You do not seem very affected by what has happened," he commented, pursing his lips slightly, "I thought you and Eren were…  _close_."

Historia's heart took a small leap on her chest.  _Shit_ , that subject again… what should she make up this time?

"Ah, we are," she clarified with a feigned smile, one of those that seemed so natural on her. "But not close to the point you are imagining, father, and you're aware of what just happened…"

Rod scrutinized her again, serious.

"I am glad you both are not close to that point," the King admitted without any relief reflected on his demeanor, "In any case, you know it is not proper of princesses to have secret affairs with low-born people, and that includes Eren Jaeger. Despite the special treatment we have with him, Eren is nothing but another employee."

Ah, that lecture again.

Historia kept her smile as she sat up straight.

"I know it well, father," she said, trying to sound sweet, "You have nothing to worry about. Eren is just my friend."

There was a moment of silence after the blonde's affirmation.

"Eren is coming back soon, these kind of affairs do not usually last long. He will come back when he gets bored. He just should be infatuated," her father commented out of nowhere before he sipped a bit of wine, "He  _must_  come back soon. He knows it."

Then Rod asked for the policeman to come in. He brought a special report, the one that the King himself asked for. The reason was that, on the day after the masquerade's ball, they discovered that the mysterious girl with whom Eren had disappeared had managed to access the event by making use of an official invitation. That invitation was in the name of Julia Auttenberg, an almost sixty year old woman who resided in the Stohess district.

Historia's eyebrows raised when she learned that detail, so she focused all of her attention on the light haired man of average build that was solemnly reading the report.

"Mrs. Julia Auttenberg confessed to have given the invitation to Margot 'Protz or Pretzel'. Mrs. Auttenberg stated she doesn't exactly remember the girl's surname, but she specified that Margot was family of an 'old friend' of hers. I quote in her own words, 'First, I decided to not assist to the party the night before because I won a few extra pounds after my husband's death and, unfortunately, the dress that I had sent to tailor for the event didn't fit me anymore,'" the policeman read, as he nervously took the sight off the paper, "Your Majesty, if you allow me, I will omit some words of the testimony so I do not disrespect you, nor the princess. The problem is that the person in charge of the investigation transcribed Mrs. Auttenberg's testimony in its entirety."

Rod shrugged, "I don't see why that is a problem. It sounds perfect to me," he said, unconcerned, "I prefer to hear the complete report. Keep reading."

The policeman nodded and, after clearing his throat, he continued with the task.

"'I couldn't go to the party if I looked like a sausage. It was then when I remembered beautiful Margot, a poor girl that I knew was madly in love with the handsome and young Doctor Jaeger. I sent a servant to contact her, so he lent her my invitation, and I recently learned that her plan of conquest worked. I love it, I'm pleased that she has achieved it.'" Shaky and flushed, the policeman took a very deep breath before reading what followed, "'Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a good romp with the love of their lives. Especially this girl who was crazy, I mean crazy for Eren Jaeger. I wonder, who hadn't done crazy things for love? I declare myself guilty for being accomplice of this terrible, awful crime. Young people fucking? Such atrocity!'"

Historia was open-mouthed. She took a look at the slightly offended expression of her father and at the countless sweat drops in the red face of the policeman.

Incredible.

This was amazing.

"Your Majesty, the investigation and writing was done by the official Reiner Braun, from the Stohess' division," the policeman informed solemnly, though his big awkwardness was evident, "I will request a sanction for officer Braun, since he was in complete acknowledgment that this report was requested by the King himself and-"

"It is not necessary," Rod said, carefully massaging his temples, "I'm not going to sanction someone that transcribed a declaration in its entirety, someone who did his job well."

"What is going to happen with Mrs. Auttenberg?" Historia asked, suddenly concerned.

Rod glanced at her with curiosity and then answered, "She was imprisoned, of course."

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Mikasa was training by herself, as she liked. She was in a room with almost spotless white walls, in which there were some training implements that only she and Levi made use of. From the cellar hung two leather-wrapped sand bags that had been patched several times.

The girl booted quickly and powerfully at one of the bags before she could manage to hear the knock at the door. When she leaned her foot on the floor again, she heard Luther's voice from the other side. He was asking her if he could get in. That it was an important matter.

Before answering, Mikasa put on a white shirt since she trained only with a cotton brassiere – that way she could mitigate the heat generated by the intense physical activity.

"Come in, Luther," she said as she kicked the sack again, "What happened?"

"You can take me down already. Seriously, I'm fine. I can walk alone." Eren said briskly with a certain weariness in his tone.

Mikasa turned around, intrigued.

Luther raised both of his hands in the air in signal of innocence while Mikasa approached both of them, taking off her black gloves and dropping them to the ground. Her initial expression of amazement because of the state of Eren's face had already came back to her typical, neutral demeanor.

"Who beat him?" she asked coldly as she studied Eren's face, whose right side was swollen and purplish.

"It was Bernard," Luther informed giving a step back, "I think Levi's already giving him a lesson."

Eren brought a finger to the bruised area to verify the swelling, though he could perceive it within his field of view.

"Ah, crap," the brown haired boy whispered, still a bit stunned by the hit. Then he ran into the inquisitive eyes of Mikasa, "I need water, a mirror and to go to my  _bedroom._  I mean that dungeon in which my stuff is in."

Luther gave him a clean knife with a wide and cold blade.

"Thanks, this will do for now," Eren said to the guy, putting the cold metal on the swollen area that hurt like hell.

"You're welcome, Doc," replied Luther, who then did a farewell gesture and left so the two young people could be alone.

Eren started to walk to get to that damn dwarf windowless place in which he slept. In all that underground area - where the Ackerman hid - there wasn't even a single window. It really was a nest of rats.

However, Eren had noticed that in some rooms, like the mess hall, the air leaked through small air ducts. In his room there wasn't even  _one_  miserable air duct though. It really was a dungeon.

He noted that Mikasa followed him close, in silence.

He clenched his jaw. He was annoyed because of what happened and for having already been there for about three days. He needed some sun light and fresh air, and a damn mirror so he could examine the bruise in detail. Besides, he wasn't feeling comfortable. He was thirsty and wanted to be alone.

When he reached his room, Eren saw that Mikasa passed by and didn't come in behind him. He didn't care, anyway. He took his medical case, put it carefully on the bed and opened it. He took out some things and rummaged inside of the case until he came across a cloth bag. There were some small glass jars in it and he chose one of them, the anti-inflammatory unguent. He sat on the bed and made the pot spin between his fingers, absentminded.

The youngest of the Ackerman soon came back to the room. She put a bowl with water on the nightstand along with a clean cloth and gave Eren a simple hand mirror. He received it a bit half-hearted, because he wasn't sure if he really wanted to look directly at the ridiculous swelling that his face must have had.

"Thanks."

Eren started to palpate the skin and his cheekbone. His face contracted in pain when he touched the most sensitive areas, but felt a certain relief when he corroborated that there was nothing broken, even though he already expected it.

He stood up, washed his hands and his face with the bowl's water. He dried it using the cloth and then began to apply the ointment gently.

Mikasa was looking at him curiously, without saying a word, so Eren started to feel more uncomfortable than he already had been. It was always awkward for him when someone stared at him a lot, as if he happened to be some kind of weird bug that they just came across with.

Eren was about to tell her to please leave him alone, when he realized that she changed the focus of her attention to what was beside him; his open medical case on the bed.

"Hey," Eren said to her as soon as he saw her hand approaching the case's interior, "Don't touch my stuff."

The girl stopped her hand in the middle of the way and it seemed as if Eren's words hurt or offended her, because her eyes were slightly watered. Her demeanor changed dramatically and her lips parted.

Suddenly, Mikasa stuck her hand in the case and took out one of the medical tools. It was the one made of wood, with a trumpet-like shape and a flat circular base.

"This…" she murmured as her hands were trembling.

Confused, Eren stood up and moved closer to her. He carefully took the object from her shivering hands. Mikasa seemed really affected and vulnerable for some reason.

"It's a fetoscope," he pointed out with a calm voice, attentively observing her strange reaction due to the encounter with the object. He didn't understand what was happening to her, "You put it on pregnant women's belly. It serves to listen to the baby's heart and-"

"I know!" Mikasa blurted out, suddenly irritated, "I… already know."

"Hey, what's wrong?" Eren was worried and was about to grab her by the shoulders, but she moved away before that happened and his fingers only brushed the trail of air on the spot she used to be in.

She abandoned the room immediately and Eren felt that he must go after her, even though he was still startled because of her sudden mood swing.

"Mikasa, wait!" he called her as he passed by the doorstep and reached the corridor, but she was already gone.

Eren almost ran into Levi, who seemed distracted looking at the darkest point of the hallway, in which there was no flaming torch.

The man half-shut his stare and directed it to Eren.

"What was that?" Levi asked with certain unease and annoyance.

Eren shook his head.

"I don't know," he admitted as his sight descended until it reached the medical instrument that seemed to have triggered everything, "She found this and reacted in a strange way."

Levi didn't take the object Eren was offering him. He had no idea what it was and what it was for. It could be filthy.

"The hell is that?" it looked like a musical instrument. An odd looking wood trumpet, or something similar.

"It's a fetoscope. It is generally used on pregnant women. When Mikasa saw it, it seems she started to go through… an emotional shock," Eren realized finally.

Levi's face went from looking annoyed to reflect astonishment and then some concern.

"Of course…" the man said, suddenly recovering his usual demeanor, "Go back to your room, you look like shit."

Ignoring Eren's confusion, Levi turned around and swiftly walked out.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

 

Levi thought that maybe the boy had inherited that thing from Grisha Jaeger and that Mikasa remembered it with clarity.

He quickly left the common underground area and went towards a thick wooden door, which divided that area from the passageway that led to the basement of his home. The darkness was absolute when he shut the door behind his back, but he walked firmly and briskly through that pitch dark place. It was a walk he had done a million times. Meters beyond, he found the entrance that connected him directly with the basement, from where he arrived to a room naturally illuminated by the Sun - that dazzled him for some seconds.

In that house lived him, Mikasa and, from time to time, Kenny as well.

He climbed the impeccable polished wood steps until he reached the second floor and stopped in front of a closed door. He leaned one ear on the surface and, sadly, he confirmed that things went wrong. He could hear some of Mikasa's stifled sobs.

Levi breathed deeply. He grabbed the doorknob and rotated it, preparing himself for what was coming… But when he got in the girl didn't attack him nor charge against him while holding a knife, like she did sometimes a few years back, when she was going through that period of great mental and emotional instability.

This time, Mikasa had only closed the curtains and was sitting on the floor, holding her legs against her chest. She was leaning a side of her face on one of her knees. Her crying eyes were looking at the newcomer.

"Knock before coming in," she scolded him with a tremulous voice as she carefully dried the tears that still rolled down her cheeks.

Levi slowly sat beside her.

"Forgive me for coming in like this…"

The girl remained silent for several seconds until she slowly nodded. Levi only ignored that rule when he suspected that she was going through a mental breakdown. This time, however, didn't seem to be exactly the case… or maybe yes? Mikasa had no idea.

The encounter with the fetoscope had caught her off guard, so much that she was about to start to cry like a child in front of Eren, so she ran away as soon as she could recover a bit from the impression. She ran away because she didn't want him to see her cry nor witness her vulnerability. She ran away in order to avoid undesirable questions from someone she barely knew.

But well, she thought, this was what she deserved for being intrusive and stubborn. Eren had told her to  _not_  touch anything.

Mikasa brought her hands to her head and slightly pulled her hair in the process.

 _Everything is going to be fine,_ she said to herself, _it's already been more than ten years._

**_Mikasa, do you want to hear it too?_ **

She gasped, surprised, and felt that her heart got smaller inside her chest. That question resounded in her head as if she was hearing it in the present, as if Grisha Jaeger was standing right there and now in her room.

To top it all, she suddenly realized that something pattered against the window, and it made her raise her eyes, scared.

It had started to rain.

Levi looked sideways at the profile of the youngest of the Ackerman, who was looking towards the window as if it was going to explode at any moment.

_It was raining again._

Those were the first winter days. The chimney was burning and Doctor Jaeger was on one of his house calls in that distant and cozy cabin, located in the mountainous area of Shiganshina.

A woman was leaning on the bed with a joyful expression. Her bulging belly just covered by a white cloth camisole. Meanwhile, the doctor was listening to the unborn using a strange instrument made of wood. On a previous visit he had explained to the family that the instrument - named fetoscope - was utilized to hear the heartbeats of the baby, besides that it was also useful to determine the position of it inside the womb.

"Mikasa, do you want to hear it too?" the doctor gently offered the device to the child.

She nodded and hurried to approach the bed, delighted.

Mikasa rested her ear on the extreme of the device and a big smile took over her lips. She was hearing the heartbeats of the little guy that was living inside there. It was also possible for her to hear some weird sounds. Sounds that she had no idea what they could be.

She softly caressed the tense skin of her mother's belly and let out a giggle of excitement when she perceived some movement under the palm of her hand. Everybody laughed with her. Mikasa blushed because now she was being the center of attention.

Her mother, with her eyes bright from rejoicing, tenderly stroked her arm.

"Is he going to be born soon?" Mikasa asked in a little voice, embracing the womb and trying to hide her face in a timid gesture.

"There are still a couple of months left," her father said. He was now sitting at the foot of the bed, near his daughter, "We must be patient."

But Mikasa only wanted the baby to be born soon. Two months were too many days and weeks, right?

At a short distance, Grisha smiled at the vision of that family united. The Ackerman of Shiganshina will add a new member in less than eight weeks, and the expectation of that birth made them all very anxious, especially Mikasa, who could not wait to have a little brother to love and take care of.

"Next week I'll be able to bring Eren with me," Grisha informed once he noted that the girl separated from her mother.

Mikasa's dark irises sparkled at the hearing of his words.

"Really?" she asked, thinking that she would have to wait seven days for it to happen.

"That's right," the man confirmed, adjusting his eyeglasses as he gave her an affable smile, "I think you and him can become good friends, Mikasa."

_It was raining again._

Five days after Doctor Jaeger's visit, Mikasa was sitting at the table performing some needlework with her mother, while her father was finishing washing the dishes and was putting some things in order to get ready for Levi's imminent arrival.

Kaspar Ackerman didn't want his wife to make any physical efforts, since her health wasn't the best at that moment.

Someone knocked at the door.

"Oh, Levi is already here!" he cheerily announced to her wife and daughter.

Kaspar dried his hands with a dishcloth. When he opened the door he caught the sight of three unknown men. He immediately tried to close the door back, thickly. His heart was racing as he feared for his family.

"Run!" he yelled as the loud noise of a shotgun blew the lock, some splinters and the fingertips of his right hand.

Mikasa had her eyes wide open. The shot had terrified her and she couldn't move. Her mother managed to stand up when the three subjects burst into her home. The sound of the rain and the heavy wind from the exterior found their opportunity to leak into the home too, managing to strip it of its warmth.

The girl's skin bristled as she saw how her father was able to hurt one of the intruders with a knife. Sadly, the man managed to hit him in the face with the butt of a shotgun. Within seconds, her father ended up being violently riddled before her horrified eyes.

"Dad…?" Mikasa whispered as the most important man of her life collapsed on the floor, now covered in a bundle of blood and torn fabric.

In a shocked state, the child was taken by the arm by her mother, who pulled her until they got to the master bedroom. The girl managed to glimpse one of the strangers giving her father one last and unnecessary shot in the head.

Miyuki Ackerman tried to open the windows but they were stuck. The wood was swollen due to the humidity of that time of the year. The pale woman managed to break the glass using a chair, but by then the intruders had arrived to the room unhurriedly.

One of them asked her to calm down, raising both of his hands to show her that he was unarmed.

"We don't want to kill you," the guy claimed. He was wearing a wool cap. "If you stop resisting we can put an end to this soon. We will take both of you to a warm and clean place."

"Look, she's pregnant," said the short-haired blond who had given a shot in the head to Kaspar Ackerman.

The three criminals exchanged looks and murmurings, so Miyuki used the moment of distraction to cross herself between her daughter and the intruders. She introduced a hand in her apron's pocket and strongly wrapped her fingers around the handle of a sharp sewing scissor.

"Mikasa," she claimed the attention of the child with a mutter, "Flee through the window, now," she said in a firm voice before unexpectedly pouncing against the man who was within reach.

There was not much she could do. Her belly didn't allow her to be faster and the strength failed her, so the blond man managed to grab her by the arm and prevented her from hurting him. Miyuki gave him a stomp and continued struggling as much as she could against one of the murderers of her husband.

Meanwhile, the cap guy asked her to calm down and to stop attacking his mate.

"Mikasa!" she screamed again when she noted that the third man was approaching the stunned child.

Mikasa finally reacted to the cry of her mother and tried to run, as fast as her little legs allowed her, up to the broken window, but the bandit that was going after her grabbed her by the dress and pulled her back. She jumped as she could on the bed and the cloth of her dress got torn. She threw a ton of desperate kicks, one of which hit the nose of her captor.

On the small lapse in which the girl was released, she managed to cling to the window frame with the intention to climb it up. In the process, a narrow and sharp piece of glass buried in the palm of her hand.

Mikasa's scream enabled her mother – who was about to lose the battle – to bury the scissor in the cheek of the murderer, even though her initial target had been the neck. She also tried to scratch his eyes and face while on the adrenaline rush.

"Bitch!" the guy cried. Burdened by the panic he vigorously pushed her, making her lose her balance. He promptly took his arm and fired.

"No!" roared the man wearing the wool cap when he heard the bang and saw the disaster, "What have you done?!"

The blond man, whose wound in the cheek was bleeding profusely, let his shotgun fall to the floor, panting.

"It was her or me, and none of you helped me!" he defended himself, giving a reproachful stare to his mates, "There was no use on asking her to calm the fuck down. You had to help me contain the damn woman!"

Mikasa was terrified looking at her mother, who was now lying on her back on the wooden floor. Somehow, she noticed that her captor was now carrying her and was taking her away from the only escape route she had. She was feeling faint to the point of not being able to pose any resistance and her eyes were stuck on the red stain on her mother's belly. The stain contrasted dramatically with the white camisole. On the ground, the bright and thickened blood created a puddle that was gradually increasing its size.

All her family was dead. Her father, her mother and the baby that would have been her brother, so Mikasa thought that maybe she was going to die too… If she wasn't dead already.

She must be dead because she could only perceive the coldness... and it seemed that her heart was not beating anymore. She couldn't feel anything else but the cold.

She was cold.

Her eyes were not capable of shedding tears and from her mouth words could not escape. Her ears had lost their capacity to listen and her lungs their capacity to breathe.

Mikasa Ackerman contemplated her mother's snowy face one last time before everything went black.

Outside - despite the torrential rain - Levi had been able to hear the unmistakable sound of the shots. He hurried the pace of his steed.

He got off the horse a few meters before arriving to the cabin and encouraged the animal to keep running. In a swift move, he took out a couple of knifes from his belt and then located himself in one of the corners of the wooden structure.

"There's someone outside," noted the blond haired intruder as he saw the steed that passed by the front of the cabin with an empty saddle. He left his shotgun on the table and loaded his gun.

The cap guy took his own gunshot and prepared it, then he closely followed his mate and ordered the third one to tie the arms and legs of the child in the meantime, so they could transport her easily.

"And do it quickly," he added while he aimed the gun to the rushing water, "Because we'll leave once we finish the nosy."

The blond murderer of Mikasa's parents jogged until he trespassed the doorknob. Out in the open, he turned to the right aiming the gun at every moment.

The cap guy – who seemed to be the group's leader – followed him closely with the intention to turn to the opposite direction, but he noticed that his partner abruptly stopped his march and that his head swayed to the back because of the speed and strength in which a knife had just pierced his eyeball. Only the wooden handle of the knife that had given him an instant death was at sight.

The leader of the bandits immediately fired his shotgun, even though he couldn't see anyone in front of him. It was only possible to see the rain.

Levi approached furtively the confused bandit from behind. He grabbed him by the jawbone and, in a brief movement, he slit his throat. Levi entered the cabin straightaway and found the body of his uncle.

"Kas…" he said in a gasp of surprise.

He frowned and directed his glance to the interior of the cabin. He took out the small gun he carried in his belt and quickened his pace, wishing that Mikasa and Miyuki were still alive, despite the darkness and ominous silence that overtook the place and that seemed to indicate the opposite.

He strongly gripped the gun. Could there be another intruder in the first floor?

The answer was delivered by a gunshot that Levi barely dodged thanks to the guy showing himself one second before. Now Levi knew that there was someone in the master room, and that there was no time to waste.

Levi got into the room zigzagging. The intruder unsuccessfully fired again, creating an instant in which Levi took advantage to aim at his head. What was left of the window blew out due to the flight of the bullet that went through the intruder's skull.

After giving a short and painful look at the wounded body of Miyuki, Levi ran towards the girl that was tied from hands and feet on the bed.

"Mikasa," he called her, but she didn't react. He put a finger on the skin of her throat.

There was pulse.

Fine, now he just had to release her, take her out of there and put her under protection. Levi didn't care if another guy showed up because he would simply get rid of him, just as he did with the other three.

"Levi?"

He turned around immediately after hearing the weak feminine voice.

"Miyuki…" he whispered astonished as he got close to the woman lying on the floor.

He observed her womb wound and the pool of blood that was surrounding her. It was unbelievable that she could still be alive.

"Levi, is Mikasa okay? Is she alive?" she asked feebly as she sealed her eyelids, afraid of a possible negative answer.

"She's alive," the young man replied.

The icy, pale and bloody hand of the woman looked for his hand and Levi corresponded the gesture, thinking that it could be the last time that he will ever hold Miyuki's delicate hand.

"I can't believe that this happened…" the woman suddenly said, with a broken voice, "This can't be real."

The image of the bloody corpse of Kaspar Ackerman invaded Levi's mind. He gasped for a bit of air and squeezed Miyuki's hand.

He could feel a lump forming in his throat.

"It was our fault. Our mistake," she continued. Levi could see how the tears started to roll down her pallid and fading face, "I… I only wanted her to have a tranquil life, and… and look at what happened… Her father is dead!" she said in between disconsolate sobs, putting the shaking palm of her hand on her womb, "And soon I'll die as well… Levi, I don't want to die. It's too soon… I- can't… leave her so soon."

Levi saw the woman's hand weakly raising towards Mikasa.

"Mikasa, wake up… Mikasa!" she called her, trying to sit up, but it only made the blood leave her body gushingly.

Levi helped her to get into a more comfortable position, even though it would only accelerate the obvious outcome. The head of the woman soon fell on his chest. She was already too feeble to even keep it straight.

"Thanks…" Miyuki smiled with difficulty, "Thank you, Levi. Thanks- for being here."

The young man didn't know what to say so he just hugged her softly, perceiving how the thin feminine body was getting more and more numb.

The woman was shivering.

Seconds after, life abandoned Miyuki Ackerman's body.

Levi put the corpse back down on the ground, trying to evade the vision of the belly that stood out. His jaw tensed. Breathing, he stood up.

There was no time to mourn. He had to take the girl out of there. When he moved towards the bed, he realized that Mikasa had her eyes half-opened. She was already awake.

"Mikasa," Levi called her but, again, the girl didn't react.

She was awake. The eyes of the little eight year old girl seemed so dull that they barely reflected the light of the sunset that slipped through the broken window. Her eyes, usually shiny, were now fixed on nothing. Dead.

In complete silence, Levi released Mikasa from her ties and covered her with some blankets. He lifted the child carefully and cradled her in his arms before leaving the place.

The outdoors didn't seem so hard and merciless, not when comparing it to the interior of that cabin.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

It had already grown dark when Grisha Jaeger was finally heading home. He hadn't seen his wife since that morning and his son since last night, and today he had a very long day.

One of his older patients, the one that apparently had reported a significant improvement after an infection, had died today. It didn't matter if someone was in their final years or their first hours - or days - of life, the death of any patient made him mourn and gave him a sense of impotence, mostly because they themselves or their families had put their lives on his hands.

Grisha raised his green eyes to the sky. It had rained intermittently during the last week. There were still some black clouds spilled here and there, obstructing the view to the star-filled panorama.

Because he was distracted, he submerged one entire shoe in a pool of water. He felt how his wool sock soaked and his skin freeze.

"Ah, I have no remedy…" he said to himself with an awkward smile as he shook his foot a bit.

Carla was going to nag at him for not looking where he was going. It was the fourth time he got his foot into a pool that week and he only had one pair of dry boots left, the ones that he was going to wear tomorrow to go to the Ackerman's cabin.

"Doctor Jaeger, right?" asked a firm, feminine voice.

Grisha met a tall and blonde woman, who was flawlessly wearing the Military Police attire. She seemed to have wanted to sound friendly despite her brusque manner.

"Yes," he answered plainly. He adjusted his eyeglasses above the bridge of his nose, waiting for her to say something else.

"I have an important message for you," the uniformed woman spoke again, with less roughness on her tone, "Come with me, please."

Grisha frowned slightly and followed her, intrigued. The night was cold and most people had already sheltered themselves in their houses.

The woman took him to the riverbank, where a dark and hooded figure was waiting with his arms crossed. Only the water torrent could be heard. It was noisier than usual due to the recent rains that stirred it up.

The hooded man, who was gazing at the river, turned around and looked at him with certain apathy.

"Grisha Jaeger," the short statured and unfriendly-faced young man greeted him, "I'm afraid your appointment for tomorrow will have to be canceled."

Grisha widened his eyes. Only Carla and Eren knew about the house calls he did to the Ackerman family of the mountainous zone. Unless…

"Who are you?" he asked, alarmed.

"Tch," the frightening-looking young man shrugged, "My name is Levi."

"Levi, how do you know-?"

"Because they were part of my family," he replied with a grief that didn't pass unperceived to the man in glasses,  _perhaps he was an Ackerman too?_  "We were informed of the medical checkups that you performed, but it doesn't matter anymore… A couple of days ago, Kaspar and Miyuki were murdered by some human traffickers. The baby didn't survive. Mikasa is safe in our dwelling. She has already been checked by our doctor and from now on she'll be  _under our custody_."

It was hard for Grisha to assimilate the harsh words he had just heard. It was difficult for him to believe that his friends were dead, and that Mikasa didn't just lose her parents, but that she also lost that little sibling for whom she has waited so much for.

 _Mikasa_. The only family she had left now were the Ackermans that lived in the underworld and, because of that tragic event, from now on she will have to live under the tutelage of Kenny Ackerman, the Ripper.

It was not nor would it ever be an appropriate place for a girl to grow up, let alone for a girl like her. Grisha wanted to offer an alternative to Levi; to ask him to give Mikasa's custody to him, so he could offer her a home in which she could have a normal and healthier life than whatever the Ackermans could offer her in that… other place.

Nevertheless, Grisha knew that there was no way Levi would agree.  _They_  were her family, not him. Mikasa shared their same blood, she was part of their clan and only them could provide her the protection she needed twenty four hours a day, while a simple doctor like him would never be able to fight against an armed group of human traffickers.

The man knew that, because of her physiognomy, the girl would never be completely safe in his home, since more traffickers could come any time and fulfill their task.

Deep down, Grisha was actually aware that Mikasa's place was with the Ackermans.

"Oi, Traute," Levi called the policewoman, who had moved away a few meters to give them some privacy, "I'm leaving. Escort doctor Jaeger so he can arrive safely to his home."

She nodded slightly.

"Doctor Jaeger, shall we go?"

Grisha observed Levi, who avoided his glance and retreated.

When Grisha got home he found his ten year old son awake. He was sitting on the faded and old high-backed chair placed under a window, while he was holding the rag doll that Carla had sewn for Mikasa.

"Dad!" the child greeted him, bouncing out of the chair and running to take the doctor's bag away from his father's hands, as usual.

Grisha usually caressed his head and thanked him for his help, but this time he remained silent, with his sight fixed on the doll that his son had left on the table.

"Dad, are you okay?" little Eren asked, examining him with his inquisitive and bright green eyes, "Are you too tired?"

"I… I'm fine. I just happened to have a very long day," the doctor responded as he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, "Eren, what are you doing awake at this time?"

The kid frowned at the question.

"I was waiting for you. We have to talk," the boy said in a serious tone.

Grisha's lips hinted a smile, but his eyes didn't manage to conceal the grief that was imprisoning his chest. "All right, son, but first let me go for a bit of water."

Eren grabbed the doll again and mumbled some things between his teeth. Once his father sat on the couch before him, the kid looked at him and showed the fluffy toy.

"I don't know how to play with dolls," he admitted, frustrated, "And I don't know what other game to play with a little girl of eight. I'm already ten, I'm almost a man, do you understand me? I think I will get bored if I only have to stay still, just making ridiculous voices to animate this thing. Unless… we made up a good story or something. I don't know, can Armin go with us at least?"

Grisha contemplated his son in silence.

"Eren," he said gently, after some moments in which the demeanor of his son went from annoyance to concern, "Don't worry. Tomorrow we don't have to go to the house of the family from the highland."

The child frowned again.

"What? Why not?"

Doctor Jaeger slowly exhaled the air from his lungs and caressed his own chin.

"They had to move to a far district a few days ago."

"Oh…" it was everything that Eren could say.

Grisha observed how his son leaned on the back of the old chair. He almost could tell that the boy was relieved for not having to play with a  _little girl_. Although at the same time he could notice his contrariety at the sudden news.

Eren had wanted to see that cabin located in the mountainous zone of Shiganshina. Grisha knew it because his son loved to get to know new places. In other occasions, Grisha had allowed him to go with him to the house calls of some patients that lived in less urbanized areas from the district but, this time, the highlands were a novelty for him.

"Dad," Eren said suddenly, "You look sad."

"I am… because I'm going to miss them," Grisha confirmed, trying to not let his voice crack, "They were very good people. I would have liked that you got to meet them… Mikasa is a very sweet and kind girl. She was so eager to meet you, Eren."

Eren stood up from the high-backed chair and went towards his father. He rested a hand on one of his father's knees, while with the other he strongly held the rag doll.

"Then we can go together to visit them, right?"

"I'm afraid we can't," Grisha murmured, putting a hand over the little hand that was resting on his knee, "They have gone far away, maybe a thousand kilometers from here… I don't know exactly where."

The child showed once again the rag doll to his father. Only then Grisha realized that Carla had already finished it. She had added a pair of dark buttons as eyes, she had sewn black wool hair to it and had designed a cute and simple pale pink dress that had a little red 'M' on the chest.

"But what are we going to do with this doll? Mom put a lot of effort into making it," Eren complained.

"I know, son," the man said, "We're going to keep it, your mother will understand."

"They could have told you that they were going to move, that way we could have given this to them before that so all mom's work wouldn't have been for nothing," the boy protested, letting the doll fall on his father's lap, "I'm going to sleep. Good night, dad."

"Good night, Eren," Grisha said, extenuated.

Afflicted, he contemplated the doll that Carla had done so lovingly for a girl that she didn't even know. A girl that not even her nor Eren were ever going to meet.

That was, at least, destiny's verdict at that very moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter notes from 2016: this chapter turned out longer than what I expected, compared to the usual chapter length I tend to write, but I needed that everything I wrote was included in this fourth chapter. In summary, number 4 is associated with death in some cultures, like the Chinese and Japanese.
> 
> For anyone that doesn't remember, Traute is Kenny's blonde subordinate in SnK manga and recently, thanks to the Q&A from chapter 78, we now know that her name is _Traute Carven_. I had another name for her in this story, but welp, better to stick to the official one. Regarding the names of Mikasa's parents, since there has not been any information in the matter, I had no other option but to invent them. In her father's case, it had to be a name that started with K, so it could follow the pattern of that letter in the Ackerman family (Kenny, Kuchel and Kaspar). I didn't name him Kevin because I was going to associate him with the Backstreet Boys, you know?
> 
> Btw in January I had a lot of feels when I saw that they included dolls in the first chapter of Mikasa's part in "Lost Girls" manga because months ago, when I planned this story, I also wanted to include a doll here :') besides Mikasa's mother pregnancy.
> 
> \-----
> 
> Now, notes from 2018: Especial thanks to **the invisible girl** for her constant support here  <3
> 
> Gorgeous [Lawless Historia's](https://kuchenackerman.tumblr.com/post/160848447103/lolakasa-ymir-is-reading-a-letter-her-bae-sent) art by [Lolakasa](https://lolakasa.tumblr.com) <3333


	5. Mikasa

Eren was laying on his bed, his sight fixed on the uneven brown surface of the ceiling. It was of soil and solid rock. He wondered how deep the hideout was, how long ago had they built it and if it was built by or for the Ackerman.

He carefully touched his bruised cheek. The ointment hadn't been completely absorbed and his fingertip was left sticky. After applying it, he noted there was not much left and it was about time to buy new medical supplements.

Kenny had assured him that he wasn't a hostage and, according to the letter that he received in his father's own handwriting, Eren was there to be protected by that lanky tobacco smelly criminal.

He decided that it was necessary to start a new conversation with the Ackerman's leader so he could get more information. Eren wanted to know everything, for him to explain who he was being protected from and why, and what was the relationship that Kenny had with his father.

He wondered if his father had helped the Ackerman people for longer than he imagined. since the first kidnapping Eren had been a victim of when he was a kid, was aimed to attract Grisha and came to an agreement which details he ignored.

He heard a couple of knocks on his bedroom's door and stood up to open it. He thought that he would find Mikasa at the other side but, to his surprise, he saw Levi and also Bernard, with whom he have had a fight.

Eren assumed that the short man had dragged Bernard there since he held him by the neck of his shirt. Bernard's head was low and looked swollen.

"I think he needs a doctor," Levi said, as he lifted the bruised guy without any difficulty.

After a groan because Levi shook him, Bernard spoke: "I ne-need a doctor," his voice sounded weak, but Eren almost could hear how Bernard's pride cracked.

The young medic looked at Kenny's nephew, who was at least twenty centimeters shorter than him and Bernard. Levi was a small man, but he overpowered both of them in strength.

Days ago Kenny had already lifted Eren with a bare hand and without any evident effort. Now, Levi had dragged Bernard to his room like it was nothing. Definitely, the Ackermans were stronger than common people and Eren didn't know if it could be because of a difference in their diet, in their workouts or if… they simply were something like super-humans. The last option seemed like a fantasy from the imaginative mind of a child, but even Mikasa had shown her ability and her incredible power the time she cornered him, reduced him and threw him over the bed.

"Ah!" Bernard whined. Eren had helped him to lay down on the bed.

Levi was already gone and had left Bernard in the corridor, leaving Eren to conclude that his room has just been turned into a nursery and the idiot that knocked him out was his very first underground patient.

"Who did this to you?" Eren asked in a neutral tone, even though the answer was obvious.

"It was Levi."

Bernard had two broken fingers on his left hand – the little finger and his ring finger. Besides the black eye, he had a long bruise that went over his stomach and thorax. Eren could almost visualize a shinbone form tattooed in hot red in his skin.

"And you said this was your punishment for hitting me?"

If Kenny was a savage, it wasn't a surprise to realize that Levi was one too.

"Yeah…" Bernard admitted, dodging his look, "and now I really regret doing it, Jaeger. Believe me when I say that I regret it."

Eren just nodded and tried to focus on what he knew to do. After immobilizing the man's broken fingers, applying an ointment and injecting him with a medication to ease the pain, Eren let out a big yawn. He finished his work, gave some health care indications to Bernard and made him leave his room.

"Thanks, Jaeger" the guy said, embarrassed.

It was late and Eren was exhausted. Tomorrow he would try to speak with Kenny to get answers and to negotiate an exit to the surface. Being able to watch the sun again had turned into a priority.

When he woke up and went to breakfast, several of Kenny's men greeted him naturally, except for Bernard, who only did an awkward gesture with his head. Eren responded with a similar gesture but, unlike Bernard, in his serious demeanor a certain serenity could be perceived.

He sat in the farthest corner at one of the long tables of the mess hall. A guy that was like a waiter left him a sandwich, a bowl of oatmeal with warm milk and a glass of juice that Eren drank immediately in a long sip. Everyone present ate the same, in the same big portion. The Ackerman's men never complained about starving, they also laughed a lot about any nonsense. Some of them even looked like decent, normal people to Eren – not criminals - enjoying a friendly meal in a typical restaurant. When some of them started mocking Bernard for his black eye, Levi appeared in the mess hall and the teasing stopped right away.

Eren went to where Levi was speaking with Volker, the red haired man with whom he had been training. Both of them cut their conversation when they noted the presence of the young doctor.

Eren greeted Volker with a gesture and then talked to Levi: "Good morning Levi, can I ask you some questions?"

"No."

Eren blinked and Volker smiled as he saw him taken aback.

"But-"

"Are you deaf? I already said no. I'm busy," Levi snapped, "Go finish eating your disgusting looking oatmeal."

Levi continued his conversation with Volker and, since he was being ignored, Eren had no choice but to go back to his spot at the table to finish his breakfast. He frowned. That  _disgusting looking_ oatmeal was delicious after all.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Kenny wasn't in his office that morning. Eren sighed. He couldn't find Levi either after his visit to the mess hall at breakfast time. On the other side, he hadn't seen Mikasa since yesterday. 

Was she okay?

Bah, but what does it matter? He didn't have to start worrying about these people.

"What are you doing here?"

A pair of dark eyes examined Eren's surprised face, who asked himself if he had been thinking aloud.

"Huh?" he saw that Mikasa was wearing her usual expressionless demeanor, "Ah, I was looking for Kenny."

"Kenny is coming later," the girl said, starting to walk away.

Eren grabbed her by the arm.

"Wait," he asked, letting her go as soon as she stopped.

For a few seconds, Mikasa contemplated the area where the boy's warm hand had been, before looking him in the eyes.

"What?" she asked, dryly.

 _Are you alright?_  Eren wanted to ask, but stopped as soon as he perceived her defensive attitude.

"When you see Kenny, can you tell him that I need to have an urgent conversation with him?"

"Sure," she said, bringing one finger to her cheek. "Does it hurt?"

He shook his head.

"Not much anymore," Eren replied, noting how puffy-eyed she was. He couldn't help it but ask: "Are you alright?"

Caught by surprise, Mikasa quickly looked away.

"I'm fine."

Eren nodded, not convinced at all, but he wouldn't ask her anything else about it. He studied the girl's clothes; the loose shirt and the long pants she was wearing, the rolled up towel under the arm and the clean bandage that covered her small hands' knuckles.

"Are you going to train?" Eren asked her.

"Yes."

"Can I look at how you train?"

"No."

Mikasa walked away through the corridor and entered in a room that she locked from inside.

Eren rolled his eyes.

 _Damn Ackermans_. So blunt, cold and reserved. Well, except for Kenny. 

Kenny was a savage lunatic that at least laughed, smiled, tried to be funny and didn't communicate in monosyllables.

"So you wanna see the sunlight again, buy your doctor things and visit a couple of patients in Trost," the Ackerman patriarch summarized, raising up a long and bony finger for each thing he mentioned.

"Yes, I want to visit two patients there. The appointment date is near. If I don't see them, they're going to inform the King and I'll face some problems."

On the back wall there was a poster with a portrait of 'Kenny The Ripper' in his youth. He was smiling even though he was in the middle of a big WANTED and BOUNTY. There was also some sort of collage made of various newspaper cuts that mentioned his name and alias, along with his several crimes. A bit to the right and up on the same wall was a pretty cuckoo clock carved from dark wood, which pendulum swung from one side to the other making a constant ticking noise.

Kenny showed him a wily smile.

"Oh, of course Rod needs to know that you're  _fulfilling your duty_ , especially if he himself took charge of paying your Medicine studies in recent years, since your old man's death."

"Yes, sort of." Eren admitted, raising his eyebrows although he was unsurprised that someone like Kenny could find out those kind of details.

The Ripper brought his pipe to his lips. "You can go out to take a walk and take your time for a full week, as long as you are accompanied by Mikasa."

Eren narrowed his eyes.

"So it will be some kind of probation, huh?"

Kenny let out a chuckle. The poor lad had no idea that he has been on probation for half of his short life.

"Actually, Mikasa will be some sort of bodyguard," Kenny spoke with a mocking smile, "the bodyguard girlfriend."

Eren frowned and tried to conceal the shade of pink that, of course, tinted his cheeks thanks to his annoyance and a bit, just a bit, of embarrassment.

"When will this farce end?"

"This farce has just started!" Kenny whined, tasting his pipe, "You're a fucking killjoy."

The boy snorted.

"I don't need to have a bodyguard. I can go alone and come back alone, nothing will happen. I've never had problems while I'm working," affirmed Eren, "What I do need is to know why my dad trusted in you, in you all, to protect me from nonexistent enemies. I'm starting to suspect that you made him write that letter under threat."

Kenny took the pipe out of his mouth. He stood up and walked until reaching a spot near Eren.

"I've used that trick in other cases, yeah," Kenny admitted, giving Eren a bump in the head, "But with your old man it wasn't needed. That letter was thought and written by him, considering that your freedom and even your life could be in danger in any moment. You see, dumb brat."

Eren rubbed his head and stared at Kenny's face, trying to verify that he was being honest. However, his mistrust was stronger.

As he realized that the boy was still doubting, Kenny continued: "Grisha knew a few secrets and lies related to the Reiss, especially stuff concerning that pork King. Things that maybe he decided not to tell you for your own safety, ha!" he sat on the desk in front of Eren, "For example, I guess he never mentioned anything about the whereabouts of Frieda Reiss."

"The  _whereabouts_  of Frieda?" Eren asked, confused, "But everybody knows that she's in a cemetery, like all dead people."

Kenny hit the desk with the base of his gripped hand.

"Not like all the dead, you naive brat. Not everyone can afford saving their stinky corpses in a Royal mausoleum, guarded by perfect and expensive marble sculptures, well maintained gardens and all that shit," Kenny teased and then he continued with a know-it-all smile, "Are you confident that Frieda Reiss is dead?"

"Yes," Eren answered after a small pause, "I know that my father did her autopsy after the guards found her body hanging in the Royal Chapel, where she used to go to pray."

"Did you see the body? Did you participate in the autopsy?"

Eren moved in his chair.

"Of course not," he admitted, a bit disturbed. He brought his fingers to his chin, "I couldn't see her in her funeral either. No one could see her body, apart from the guards that found her, Rod and my dad. Anyway, I can assure you that the faces of those dead by hanging are not nice to see… I remember that, out of respect for the Royal Family and the memory of Frieda, they kept the coffin sealed."

"Do you think that Frieda Reiss would have been capable of taking her own life?" Kenny insisted.

An image of a smiling and kind Frieda came to Eren's mind and before he could answer anything, Levi and Mikasa bounced into Kenny's office. Both of them were wearing black clothes and had some sort of dark scarf around their necks, with which they could cover their mouth and nose.

Eren was surprised by their outfits and their lethal appearance. He could note an array of weapons hanging on their leather belts. Mikasa was wearing knives tied to her leg and arm.

"We have some updated information about the itinerary of the goods," informed Levi, ignoring the presence of the young doctor.

"That's it. Our time is up, Eren," Kenny told him, showing him the exit of the office.

On his way out, Eren passed by Mikasa and observed her while she took out a black cotton beanie and undid the bun in which her hair was tied. She didn't make visual contact with him and waited for him to leave to come closer to the desk of her uncle. Levi imitated her.

Kenny glanced at her, smiling.

"Mikasa, I have a new mission for you: to accompany and protect Eren in his trip to Trost, what do you think?"

The girl just nodded and didn't say anything at all. She tried to maintain her stoic manners even though the idea of dealing with that panorama made her feel nervous.

"Kenny," Levi murmured, looking sideways at Mikasa, "Wouldn't it be better that, just for this time, I went with him instead of Mikasa?"

"Of course not," he denied, laughing between his teeth, "If you were Eren, what would you prefer? The company of a pretty girl or of a sour midget?"

Levi let out a weary sigh, while Mikasa blushed slightly and squeezed her lips. 

 _Sour midget_. Fucking Kenny and his funny nonsense. The girl gave a look at her annoyed cousin and had to cover her mouth with the fabric that she wore around her neck.

"Mikasa will accompany Eren on his trips and you," he pointed at Levi, "will start supervising his workouts once he's back. We need Jaeger to stop being a damn weakling."

"Whatever," Levi said, elbowing Mikasa, "Oi, what's so funny?"

"The… sour midget thing," she said, shrugging.

Kenny chuckled.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

The first time Mikasa visited Trost was during a mission about a year ago with Levi and some of the men he was in charge of. They had planned a meeting with a merchant to make a deal. His name was Dimo Reeves and he turned out to be a quite cooperative guy, so much that nowadays he informed them about any route or irregularity in the actions of other merchandising transporters with whom the Ackerman had agreements.

Now Mikasa was beside Eren Jaeger, who was checking his notes in an old notebook in the middle of a pleasing cobbled street full of stores.

"The store I have to go to is located a block away," he informed, pointing with a finger to an area that looked discreet and less crowded.

She followed him. Her eyes wandered through every store they passed by. There was everything you could think of; sewing stores, shoe stores, toy stores and appealing female accessories stores. They walked by a small bank – which was closed –, a sad looking hostel and a barber shop, until they stopped in front of an apothecary. Eren entered, greeted the bald manager and then asked for what he needed.

When everything was in order, he went to Mikasa.

"Did you want to take a look in the other stores?" he suddenly asked her, and she nodded, "Fine, let's go."

The girl's eyes glimmered for a brief instant and Eren felt uncomfortable when she grabbed him by the arm.

"What are you doing?" he questioned in a low voice.

"What I've seen other couples doing around here," she replied calmly.

"Oh…"

"I think we should leave what you bought in the hotel before taking a walk," she said with easiness.

Eren was carrying two bags of paper full of medical supplies, stuff that could become a nuisance in case they took a long walk until it was time for dinner. They went for about four blocks before they got to the hotel, where they would spent a few nights.

At the reception desk was still the same woman that gave them the keys to the twin single room they reserved.

"Just a while ago one of the rooms that have a double bed got available," she informed them with a warm smile, "it will be a pleasure to change you to that room if you wish."

Eren seemed terrified, and it wasn't for less, but he got more scared when he heard the sudden giggle of Mikasa, who reached the receptionist.

"We would love it," she whispered to the woman in a mischievous way, "but I promised my parents that on this trip, Eren and I would sleep in different rooms, and I'm not even doing that! They would kill me if they found out that besides sleeping with him in the same room, we slept several nights in the _same_  bed."

"Aw, I understand…," the woman nodded in a low voice, showing Mikasa a knowing smile, "I understand you perfectly, young lady. Back in my times my parents would have disowned me. Things have changed over the years, though, but still I have to admit that you are pretty brave."

Mikasa gave her a confident smile.

"I guess," Mikasa said, giving Eren a flirty look. He only hugged his bags as he had no idea what the hell was happening nor what they were exactly talking about, "Love make us reckless and… stupid."

The receptionist laughed heartily and nodded. "I would also become stupid if I had such a handsome boyfriend," she said after a slight sigh, gazing at Eren as if she was contemplating some kind of dreamy landscape.

When they got into the bedroom in the hotel's second floor, in complete silence Eren started to pack away and to put in order what he had bought. He avoided looking at Mikasa's face even though she was so close, staring at every glass pot and little bags with unknown dust inside that he took out from the paper bag and transferred to the medical briefcase.

"I thought you would only leave the stuff here and then we would go out."

Eren didn't respond immediately.

"I prefer to put everything in order," he said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. The damsel in distress. The adorable in love girl, cheerful and coquette. Mikasa was a good actress, "You could dedicate yourself to the theater, you have talent," his comment sounded more similar to a complaint than to a compliment.

The young doctor saw how the girl shrugged.

"If I acted out of pleasure, maybe I would do it," she replied, inexpressive, "Can we go outside already? Tomorrow we'll barely have time to stroll."

"Yes, everything is in order," Eren said, closing the briefcase he would use the next day to visit his patients.

Little by little that afternoon he had been getting accustomed to Mikasa going around with him almost hanging from his arm, or holding his hand as if it was nothing when she dragged him inside a store that caught her attention. Confused, at several moments Eren wasn't capable of distinguishing if these attitudes were her own of if she was just immersed in her  _affectionate girlfriend_  role, because the Mikasa he knew underground was so different.

Cold, but at the same time warm. Cheerful and serious. Sweet and bitter. Distant and close. Rude and gentle…

How was Mikasa, in reality?

In the store they spent more time was one of imitation jewelry and female accessories, but Mikasa didn't seem interested in necklaces, neither in trinkets or rings. What really caught her attention was the small section dedicated to hair ornaments.

Eren watched her trying different ornaments in front of a little mirror and thought she showed a preference for those with floral motifs. She tried a lot of ornaments but, finally, she took none.

"I thought that at least you would buy one. One of the millions you tried," said Eren as they left the store, rubbing his eyes.

"I was expecting for you to buy me one as a gift," she replied, nonchalantly grabbing him by the arm.

"Huh? Why would I have to gift you one of these things?"

Mikasa rolled her eyes.

"Because we are supposed to be a couple, and that's what boyfriends do for their girlfriends," she said in a low voice.

"You just said it yourself," Eren responded her in a whisper between his teeth, "we're  _supposed_ to be a couple."

The younger of the Ackerman let out a dramatic sigh. "Seriously, you're the worst boyfriend," she whined, feigning sadness.

It was Eren's turn to roll his eyes. "You're an opportunist."

They were already a few meters away of the jewelry store when they heard someone yelling behind them.

"Stop! Stop there, thieves!" bawled the store clerk, who was reaching them by running as fast as he could with his short legs, "Police! Call the police! Help, police!"

Mikasa's eyes widened. She grabbed Eren by the hand and started running, but other store clerks and bewildered clients surrounded them like a human wall.

Eren glanced at the people and then stared at her companion, confused.

"What the hell? Did you steal from him…?" he questioned, frowning slowly.

She didn't answer. She seemed to be weighing the situation. Her hands were closed in a tight fist. Mikasa was preparing herself to fight, but just as quickly she relaxed her stance and released the tension that she had put into her fists.

With her eyes fixed on the store clerk that was close to them, Mikasa took out one of the ornaments she was hiding behind her ear, under her black hair, then she took out a pair of ornaments that she had put inside her dirndl apron's strip.

The store clerk received the junk jewelry. His face was sweaty and red of fury.

"This doesn't fix anything. You're going to jail along with your accomplice," he warned them both, "We're so done of thefts here. We're honest people!"

The bustle attracted more curious people, who muttered to each other. Eren could hear some mentioning his last name, but not much more, because his blood was boiling and his head was pounding.

"Perfect. Well done," he said to Mikasa in her ear, at the same time that he brushed a hand through his hair and then crossed his arms, exasperated.

Mikasa had almost completely recovered her stoic demeanor when she sharply took Eren by the collar of his shirt and brought her face close to his.

"Remember that my name is  _Margot Protz_ ," she said, in a tone on the edge of the threat. She then put her head against his chest and started sobbing out of a sudden. Eren looked around him and, despite his indignation, he knew there was nothing to do but to play along and hug her.

Eren embraced her without delicacy. The only thing he wanted was to get away from her in these moments, but he was boiling in rage and he expressed it through the tightness of his arms around her narrow female body. He didn't heard her complaining because of that.

A pair of police men that prowled the area arrived promptly. Already calmer, the store clerk explained them what happened and pointed to the couple guilty of the theft.

"This is the first time I've done something like this," Mikasa have said with a weak voice while the freckled police man handcuffed her carefully. The guy seemed affected by the crying girl, "I don't know what happened to me."

"We'll have to check your records to verify that," the police man explained to her with a small comforting smile, "If what you say is true, you should not be more than one week in a cell."

"A week!?" Eren almost yelled as he overheard the conversation.

"Don't yell, idiot," the other police man said, who was roughly handcuffing Eren.

"Who do you think you're calling an idiot, you horse-faced asshole?"

"Eren, please," Mikasa muttered with her teary eyes.

Shit, she could look like a saint.

Despite the offense, the police man let Eren go and contemplated Mikasa with widened eyes. He just noticed her, her face. Her impressive beauty.

"Wh-what's your name?" the guy asked with rosy cheeks.

Mikasa dried her tears softly and showed him a little smile. Eren raised an eyebrow.

"My name's Margot," she replied.

"Margot…" the police man repeated, as if he was relishing her name.

"Hey, Jean," the freckled police man cleared his throat so his partner could came back to his senses, "We have to take them to the police station."

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Of course."

They made Eren and Mikasa get into a carriage and closed it from outside so they could not escape. Eren pulled away from the girl and leaned his head against the glass, letting out a snort. His breath fogged the glass.

"Eren…"

"This is absurd. Ridiculous," he snapped, turning around enraged, "Why the fuck did you steal that crap? These are damn gimcracks and your family have enough money, or more than enough. You could have paid for them and you could have saved us this experience, but no, now we're going to have to spent at least a week in a fucking cell, wasting our time, and everything because of your fault. Everything because you can't avoid being what you are!"

"I'm sorry," she said. Her hurt look descended to the metal rings she had on her wrists.

"Oh, you're sorry?" asked Eren, clenching his jaw. "Are you really sorry or is this just another of your many performances?"

"I'm not acting," a lump was beginning to form in her throat.

"And how could I know it? I don't even know how you really are."

Mikasa held his angry stare for a while, during which her dark eyes became more unfathomable, more cold, the same as her pale demeanor.

"You're right. You couldn't know it," she agreed, monotonous.

It had started to grow dark when they reached the police station. The officers identified themselves as Jean Kirschtein and Marco Bott when they entered.

Eren and Mikasa were briefly interrogated. Another officer asked for their identifications and wrote some notes in a thick book. He informed them that they would have to stay between twenty four and forty eight hours so they could check their records in the main office. After that, 'Margot' would have to stay at least a week imprisoned, while Eren would be released after three nights. Only that, because Kirschtein seemed to have forgotten that Eren had offended him by calling him a  _horse-faced asshole_ , otherwise the police man would have presented charges for a lack of respect for authority.

They took out their handcuffs as they were placed in their cell. The place was cold and smelt like humidity.

Mikasa sat in the stone floor, in a corner beside the bars, and sighed.

What would Kenny and Levi say? An Ackerman could not allow being captured like that. This was a failure, a mess and a dishonor. After this, they wouldn't trust in her to be in charge of anything. This was an easy mission and still she ruined it. What an embarrassment.

She lied when she said to the freckled police man that this was the first time she stole something. She had done it many times before, since she was a kid, she had always gotten away with it until now.

_Everything because you can't avoid being what you are!_

Eren's words resounded in her head and it was true. She had to admit it, even though truth hurt, she knew perfectly what he meant, and she was aware of the disregard Eren had for her and her family. They were criminals.

_I don't even know how you really are._

Mikasa held her knees over the fabric of her dress. She had ruined everything. The day had gone perfectly with Eren until she couldn't resist the damn impulse of getting stuff without paying for them.

She pressed her legs. How was she going to get out of there?

She had to get out. To get Eren out of that place as soon as possible and before Kenny and Levi were forced to intercede… That if they got to find out about this in one or two days. As it were, they would end up finding out anyway.

Mikasa snorted, stood up and leaned her face against and between the cold bars waiting to see a police man, hoping for it to be that Jean guy. She suspected that she could use everything they taught her about female arts with him, so she could achieve an early release, if it was possible.

After minutes waiting for a round of surveillance, an officer entered the corridor and started walking close. He carried a gas lamp. When he stopped by her cell, Mikasa could see it was the freckled one, Marco.

The girl held his glance and he offered her a little smile.

"Is everything alright?" he asked out of courtesy, and Mikasa shook her head, "is there something I could help?"

Mikasa's eyes got watery.

"I've never been in a place like this," she said, afflicted, "I want to go back home."

Marco nodded.

"I understand and I'm sorry, but we can't release you so soon. We have to respect the law."

"Can you at least release Eren?" tears ran through her pale cheeks, "He's innocent and tomorrow he has to visit patients, urgently. Please, it's important. There are lives in danger."

The man took a look at the shadowed figure of Eren, who was seated in the darkest and furthest corner of the cell with his head back and leaning over the bricks, as if he was sleeping.

"I'll see what we can do about that," Marco said, in a calm voice, "Don't worry, this is nothing serious. It will be a short detention."

"Thank you so much," Mikasa said, resting her face between the bars.

Once Marco left, the girl focused on the murmurs of various masculine voices, until a feminine voice caught her attention. It sounded familiar.

She heard the metal squeak of an opening door and saw the light of the lamps. Dry steps came to her cell and in front of her stood a young blonde and short officer, whose blue and icy gaze could make anyone nervous.

Mikasa and the blonde exchanged cold stares.

"This is Margot Protz," said the police woman, in an indifferent tone, and then she pointed at the guy at the end of the cell raising the gas lamp to illuminate the back of the place, "and that one is Eren Jaeger, the doctor."

"That's right, Officer Leonhardt," Marco confirmed.

The shadow of a smile crossed Mikasa's lips.

"Fine, I'll make them answer some questions. You can go back to your desk, Bott."

"As you order, officer."

The blonde waited for the man to leave the detention zone before coming closer to Mikasa.

"You're lucky,  _Margot_ ," she said with apathy, "Your bail has been paid and you're getting out of here in less than an hour."

So it was. Eren and Mikasa were inside the private office of Annie Leonhardt, the chief of the police station in Trost.

Eren was tired and still upset, but now he was also confused.

"Sorry, officer, but who paid our bail?" he asked. There was no way Kenny could have found out about the imprisonment in such short notice.

Annie exchanged looks with Mikasa and then focused her glacial glance on Eren.

"I paid it," she answered him, as if it wasn't the big thing.

"What?" Eren raised an eyebrow, thinking it was a joke.

"I owe you one, Annie," thanked Mikasa, without even trying to hide her relief.

Annie shrugged and Eren's eyes went from one girl to the other. They _knew_ each other.

"You owe me the bail,  _Margot_."

"Fine."

"And a kick in the ass, for the inconvenience."

"Sure, as if you could."

"Hey, what the hell?" Eren interrupted, trying to claim Mikasa's gaze so she would give him answers, "Does she work for you? Have you bought an officer?"

Annie snorted.

"Jaeger, you speak too loud. Let us alone for a while," she requested, weary, "I'll give you your  _girlfriend_  back soon."

Eren stood abruptly. He raised and dropped his hands, displeased.

"It was a sovereign stupidity for you to get caught," Annie said as she took a box of donuts down from her desk and offered one to Mikasa.

"I know, but a lot of people blocked our way and I couldn't hit one of your pawns in front of all those witnesses," Mikasa managed to say, chewing the edge of a donut. It had a nice taste, "doing that would have raised a lot of suspicions."

"Poor timing and a bad place to steal gimcracks, Ackerman," Annie gave a quick look at the closed door of her office before informing Mikasa in a whisper: "Reiss imprisoned Julia Auttenberg already, as expected."

Mikasa nodded with some regret. The woman that had given her the invitation to the Reiss' ball was aware of the consequences of her actions when she got caught. "We knew that woman would do anything to pay off her debt with Kenny."

Kenny did Julia a big favor helping her to get rid of her husband, with whom she had endured years of physical and psychological abuse.

"Reiner was the one in charge of recording her testimony," Annie made a slight grimace of displeasure when she mentioned the name of the Stohess officer, "he confirmed the woman testified according to what was planned."

"Kenny will be satisfied," Mikasa nodded.

Annie and Mikasa didn't even say good bye when the last one left the office.

Outside, Eren was waiting for her, leaning on a wall with his arms crossed. His hair messy and an intense gaze that was a blend of reproach, annoyance and curiosity.

"Shall we go?" Eren asked, disguising an order.

The girl brought a hand unwittingly to her chest, where her heartbeat intensified out of nothing. Her breathing changed too. She shook her head and took a deep breath.

"Yes," she said, as she followed Eren.

This time around she didn't dare to get close to him. She didn't feel free to grab his arm and by no means to hold his hand to hurry up.

It was night already and the temperature had dropped. They walked side by side, respecting their distance. Mikasa embraced herself, keeping her gaze on the floor. Eren had his hands inside his pockets and was immersed in thoughts.

"I need a beer," Eren announced, clearing his throat. He felt his mouth dry, "I know there's a canteen around here."

Without counting the waitresses, Mikasa was the only woman inside the small canteen. Its foul air was a disgusting mix of alcohol, male stench and tobacco.

A waitress helped them find a table for two in the center of the room. Mikasa noted that the young woman was claiming more attention from Eren, but he didn't realize a thing. Still, she felt a hint of annoyance, wasn't that girl aware that he was with someone?

She sat down and rested her head in one hand, doing what she could to ignore the cheeky flirtations of the waitress. She heard Eren asking for a pint of beer for him and half of that, for her.

"I want a liter," the youngest of the Ackerman corrected him.

Eren blinked and Mikasa crossed her arms. The cheerful and provocative waitress took note of their orders, dedicating a last smile to Eren as she moved away, hips waving.

"A liter?" Eren questioned her, without even noticing the waitress' butt, "You're going to get drunk."

"At most I'll have to go to the toilet in a while," said Mikasa, squinting her eyes at the girl that was retrieving their beers.

"If you say so…" Eren shrugged, hoping he didn't have to carry her back to the hotel. Those beers contained a high degree of alcohol. "Does the smoke bother you?"

"No."

They got their beers, Mikasa drank almost half of hers in a big sip and licked the white foam that remained from her upper lip. A group of men at the adjacent table studied her with interest and laughed about a private joke only they heard.

Eren frowned when he noticed the guys pointing at him and laughing. Of course, they realized that Mikasa was drinking a liter of beer while he was drinking half of that. They were making fun of him, questioning his manhood.

The boy snorted and drank his half liter with moderation, but almost spat the last sip as he heard his companion asking for another liter. The crazy one had already finished the one she asked for when they arrived.

"Hey, look at me," Eren asked.

"What? Do you think I'm drunk already?"

He noted that she spoke normally. She was the same inexpressive Mikasa.

It couldn't be.

Soon each of them had a liter of beer, and she rolled her eyes at his evident desire to compete.

"Eren," she called him, "I warn you: the only one who's going to end up drunk is you."

"Pffft!" the young doctor gave her a sly smirk, "What do you want to bet?"

Mikasa's cheeks lighted up as if they were on fire, and something bounced inside her belly. She'd never seen him grinning in that way before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Especial thanks to Kaekiro for her beautiful review in last chapter <3 and thank you all for the kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions!
> 
> I would love to know what you all think about this chapter~


	6. Allies

The ground seemed to sway under the soles of his feet. The table felt unstable beneath his forearms, so Eren grabbed his stein of beer firmly and with a bit of wariness, preventing a possible fall. The golden liquid was barely topped by a thin layer of white foam. It was so faded that the tiny bubbles that used to spark at the contact with the surface had already disappeared.

Sitting in front of him, Mikasa… was smiling? Perhaps she was laughing at him.

"What's so funny?" he asked her, dragging the words and squinting his eyes.

The girl let out a giggle and snatched the glass stein from him with ease. She took advantage and stole a few beer sips.

"Hey!" Eren groaned. His expression similar to the one of a little child to whom someone had just taken his favorite toy. There even was a hint of a pouty mouth.

"You're drunk." Mikasa said as she gave him the drink back with a grimace of repugnance, "It's disgusting and warm."

"Drunk?" Eren felt his tongue sore. He exhaled, making his head go back and then go forward. He pressed his eyelids, feeling the dizziness "Yeah… a bit."

Mikasa seemed blurry, was it because of the excess of smoke? It had to be the smoke. He wasn't that drunk, just a bit tipsy. Eren rubbed his eyes. He was sleepy, his eyelids felt heavy, so he rested his cheek on the palm of his hand for a second. The noise of the place was gradually dampening, until his head fell on the table and it bounced. Eren opened his eyes at once, startled by the sudden voices, laughs and all the yelling that surrounded him. He straightened up immediately into the chair and took a glance around, disoriented and dizzy.

Where the fuck was he and why were they all talking so loud?

There was a beautiful girl sitting in front of him, looking sideways at two men that were speaking to her lively.

He blinked a few times.

_Who were these guys and who was that girl?_

"You can- us- leave your boyfriend- come- have more fun-" said a dude that was missing half of an ear. What was he talking about?

Eren brought his hands to his head and pressed it. What an annoyance.

That girl was Mikasa, yes. He came with her to drink something, but the two disgusting dudes that were next to her, he didn't know them from anywhere.

"No." Mikasa snapped suddenly, and one of the men dared to caress her chin.

"Don't play the difficult one, beautiful."

Eren's brain started to process what was really going on in an appropriate way, at least for some moments.

"If you put your dirty hands on her again I'll break your damn nose," he threatened the man with what sounded as some sort of babble, trying to stand up. He grabbed the chair and both men laughed at him.

"Eren, sit down," ordered Mikasa and the men laughed at Eren again, calling him pathetic, "I can handle this alone."

The guy who was missing half an ear grabbed her brusquely by the arm to make her stand up and Eren, alarmed, ran around the table as fast as he could to reach them, trying to punch one of them in the face, but he missed him and hit the empty space at the side of the smiling stranger. Some of the people present in that shit-hole den laughed at his failed attempt, though soon the giggles turned into gasps of surprise after hearing a loud crack and a scream of pain.

Mikasa, in a fast move, had entirely twisted the wrist of the man that dared to touch her. The men that seemed to be his friends, astounded, decided to abandon their drinks and surrounded her.

"I don't know how you did it but you're gonna pay for this, bitch," said a fat guy, making his knuckles crack as an intimidation ritual preceding a fight, but a tall man that came from behind ordered him to shut up and to stop calling the attention. He was better dressed than the rest of them.

"She will come with us," he assured with a grotesque smile, showing directly to Mikasa the gun that was hanging from his belt, "If you stop resisting I will not put a bullet hole in your boyfriend," he came closer to her and whispered, "Everything is going to be fine, at most you'll not be able to sit and you're going to hobble for a few days," he grabbed her without any delicacy from the waist.

Eren observed the scene clenching his jaw, without even being able to hear what they just said to Mikasa, whose gaze had turned darker as her face erased any hint of emotion.

"I'll come with you," she said in a loud voice. Before going out of the tavern, she pressed Eren's hand and hissed, calmly: "Stay here, I'll come back for you soon."

Eren shook his head as she went away in company of the five strangers.

"Shit, don't…" he mumbled.

His heart throbbed strongly against his chest. He could barely stay on his feet, but he had to follow her. He had to help her. Damn the moment when he got so drunk. If something happened to Mikasa he would never, ever forgive himself. He wouldn't forgive the rest of the stupid people that have done nothing to stop the group of animals that just took her away either. She was a girl with a bunch of men of doubtful reputation and, however, no one had said nor done anything… He included.

_Shit._

People kept smoking and drinking. Some commented on what just happened with a smile as if it was such a small occurrence. Most of the people that was there were men. The only ones that looked concerned and scared because of the situation were the two waitresses and one of them - that had ran to the exit as well - told Eren that she was going to tell the police about it.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Mikasa Ackerman didn't look worried nor scared in any way though. They guided her to a humid, dirty and bad smelling alley between two buildings, dark as the mouth of a wolf. The light that the street's gas lamps emitted only lit the entrance of the alley, while Mikasa was ordered to walk until the very end of it at gunpoint, where she found herself against a brick wall. There was no exit. She did not even acquired a combat position when the men started to close the distance, laughing between their teeth and talking with luxury of detail about what they were going to do to her. The guy to whom she had broken his wrist in the tavern was asking to be the first one, but the man that had the gun was clearly the leader and everyone else would have their turn after him.

"You know, if you don't oppose resistance everything ends faster," said the armed man once he stopped in front of her.

She had already heard something very similar, about a decade back. She exhaled heavily to clear her mind.

 _Play the game_ , she said to herself as she bent down carefully to start unbuttoning his pants.

"Oh, are you one of those girls that take the initiative?" asked the man without hiding his surprise, "You seem to want it, I guess this will be interesti…"

Mikasa had stood up. She was firmly grabbing the handle of the knife she used to carry hidden in her thigh. With it she stabbed the guy that was in front of her in the crotch, as she covered his mouth with the other hand.

"You know, if you don't oppose resistance everything ends faster," she imitated him with a soft but fierce voice.

In the middle of the darkness, she slid the knife out and stabbed him again, this time on the insides of his thighs. She pushed him to the side and stole his gun on the way. The man still didn't scream nor cried because of the shock.

"Who's next?" she asked brusquely. She had blood on the hand where she held the dagger, feeling it warm and slick on her skin.

"Huh? The boss finished so quickly already?"

The echo of a shot overran the small alley and it alarmed the four men. One of them had now a dark and growing stain on his chest. His eyes widened. After a few seconds, he collapsed on his knees as he brought his fingers to the center of his thorax.

At the entrance of the alley, the other three man that were on guard exchanged looks and asked if the boss had gone mad, but then they saw the girl rising up from the shadows completely dressed and grabbing a bloody knife. She also had the smoky fire arm hanging from her waist.

"What the hell?" the one with the broken wrist went backwards, astonished as he stared the young woman's apathetic face and her firm walk.

Mikasa turned the knife on his hand with skill, she moved swiftly and cut the throat of one of the guys that was laying against the wall. The blood ran vigorously from the deep wound and splashed the man that was sitting on the ground, who stood up immediately, uttering a scream.

Eren appeared out of nowhere and threw himself against the yelling guy. They both fell and, as soon as he went up, the young doctor gave him a clumsy head-butt in the nose, which he accompanied with a series of furious punches in the face.

"Eren, stop. Stop it!" Mikasa scolded and grabbed him from behind to make him go away from the guy he was hitting, "You had to wait for me."

The man with the broken wrist, who had been a witness of the scene, took advantage of the distraction the recently arrived provided and ran away, leaving his partner behind. He wasn't able to get too far, though, since he received the hit of the back of a shotgun on his head before he could even turn around a corner.

"Stop there," Jean Kirschtein ordered with certain satisfaction on his voice, pointing the guy with the shotgun and making him lay against the wall of a house.

The suspect, dazed, whined because of the pain and raised both his arms up after a moment.

Jean noticed that one of the guy's hand was hanging in an unusual way. He handcuffed him without any care at all anyways. To him, the motherfucker was damned.

Meanwhile, Annie Leonhardt pointed her shotgun at the second suspect, who was laying on the floor at the beginning of the alley. The guy was crying. He had a broken nose and blood spots all over his face and chest. He was also bruised because of some of the punches that Eren managed to get right.

"How many were they?" asked Annie, throwing a quick and inquisitive look around.

"Five," Mikasa replied. She grabbed the man that was on the ground by the arm and dragged him without any effort to the inside. She made him stand up and put the knife on his hands. She also tore her dress up, messed up her hair and threw the gun to the end of the alley, where the first guy she stabbed should have had already passed out because of the blood loss, "There are two left. Or maybe one," she said, making a vague gesture.

The blonde police officer nodded, inexpressive. "Quick," she muttered.

Mikasa let out a strident yell.

Eren - who had stood up again as fast as he could after he heard her - went back inside of the dark alley and observed everything in complete silence.

"Let the girl go!" Annie ordered the man, even though he was not doing anything else but to bounce his glance between Annie, Mikasa and Eren, absolutely confused and scared.

The stranger let the knife that they put on his hands fall and made a sign of surrender.

"I-I surrender," he babbled, without understanding what was going on.

"Let her go or I'll shoot!"

When Jean was running and about to reach the entrance of the alley, Annie shot the second suspect. It was a clean shot between both eyebrows.

Eren passed by the recently arrived police man, walked some steps away and threw up most of his drunkenness.

"Shit, what happened here?" asked Jean, trying to examine the area. Because of the lack of light, he could only see the corpse of the dude his partner had just shot and another one that had recently gotten his throat cut, "There were three of them?" he doubted, focusing on the deep and clean cut.

_Had she done that?_

"Five. The other two are back there, at the end" Annie cleared up, putting a hand on the shoulder of a trembling Mikasa.

Annie said she would take care of the declarations of the victim and ordered Jean to quickly come back to the police station, to take the only live suspect and to come back with reinforcements that could help them analyze and, more than anything, help them clean the crime scene.

The young officer did as told, not before looking at Mikasa – who he knew and remembered by the name of Margot – with big concern, while he dedicated a stare of intense disapproval to Eren. He left muttering things only he could understand.

"How was it that you arrived so fast?" the youngest of the Ackerman questioned coldly, fixing her hair up and drying her fake tears with the back of her hand.

Annie put the shotgun down against the closest brick wall and adjusted the silver ring she was almost always bringing with her.

"I was in the middle of a patrol," she said, "Every night there's vigilance in this problematic zone."

"You, just patrolling around here? How convenient," she stretched her dress and wiped off the blood that she still had on her hands, "You've been following me."

The officer held her glare and didn't respond. Her silence was more than enough.

Mikasa opened her mouth to say something else, but Eren came to her mumbling unintelligible things. He had his eyes moist and reddened. The boy surrounded her in a heavy hug and she had to grab him a few minutes after, when he definitely had fallen asleep – or passed out – and was falling down.

"Luck with that," Annie said sarcastically, with a hint of a smile on her lips. She grabbed her shotgun and went in the direction from where she had arrived. She stopped several meters away to wait for the reinforcements, not staring back at the fake couple.

Both girls knew that there was nothing to make up about the declaration, for Annie would edit it to her liking and according to her own experience.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Eren Jaeger looked upset and fucked up. He had his hair messed up and wet, the clothes untidy and his gaze lost. A white spot went from the edge of his lips to his chin. He was pale.

"Mikasa…?" he talked in a raspy voice, while she shushed him and helped him to sit correctly on the bed.

It was drizzling outside.

Before getting in the room they rented, Eren had returned to his senses and tried to set free, assuring that he  _would kill 'em all_  in the middle of a sudden outburst of energy and anger. Mikasa had tried to explain him that they were all already done for, but the boy struggled for some seconds more until she decided to simply carry him to quickly take shelter from the cold and humidity of the outside. It was very late, around five in the morning, and both of them were tired after all the bustle.

The young doctor didn't whine when she cleaned his face with a wet towel and made him drink water.

"I'll change clothes in the bathroom. You can change here. I'll ask if I can come in once I'm ready, okay?" the girl went inside the bathroom with her things even though she didn't obtain a response. "So… are you going to sleep like that?" she asked him minutes later, wearing a long pink camisole and covering her chest with her arms crossed in front of it.

Eren continued in the same position she left him in. At most he had unbuttoned the upper part of his shirt and seemed to have forgotten the rest. He didn't blink. Once she looked at him from a short distance, she realized he had his eyes extremely irritated.

"I'm an asshole," he said out of nowhere, meeting her gaze.

Mikasa sat slowly beside him.

"You aren't"

"Yes, I am. I couldn't do anything because I was-" he pointed himself and let his hands fall on his lap, defeated, "Well, like this."

"You knocked down one of them. You helped me."

Eren squeezed the sheets with his wielded hands. He was still drunk, but he knew she only said that to not make him feel worse. He couldn't avoid the nauseating sensation, not only because of the excess of alcohol that ran through his veins, but also because of his stupidity and uselessness.

"You should take off your shoes and lay down," Mikasa suggested in a kind tone.

"I will puke if I lay down. I'll go to the toilette…"

She stood up to go with him, offering him help with his shoes, but the brown haired boy made a gesture with his hand so she didn't follow him.

"I can go alone."

Once he came back, he clumsily took his shoes off and lied down on the bed. He heard Mikasa warning him about not falling sleep like that - without even covering himself - because he could get a cold. She was already between the blankets of her own bed and seemed to be fighting to not fall asleep so fast.

"Are you fine?" she asked him, with a lazy voice.

"Yeah, I'm better now."

He had threw up for the second time that night and drank lots of water afterwards. He felt like shit because of lots of reasons besides drinking more beer than he should. He sat on the bed and looked at his roommate, who after some moments was already sleeping with such a relaxed face that anyone would think she went through a typical and calm day, as any other.

Eren couldn't remember everything that happened that night. He only knew that Mikasa took care of the dudes that dared to bother her and that she ended committing some murders in the name of self-defense. In the meantime, he had punched one of the guys that seemed to have been just as or more drunk than him. 

_Wow, he was so ridiculous._

Ackerman or not, Mikasa was a girl, and she had to fight against all these guys alone, while he had been incapacitated to offer actual help to her.

Things could have gone wrong, really wrong. Goosebumps went through his back when he thought about a hurt and sexually assaulted Mikasa.

"Eren," she said, with her eyes closed, and he gave a little bounce in his place, "You have to sleep."

"I can't…"

She opened her eyes slowly and blinked a few times. The only light available in the room was the one given by the little gas lamp on the night table, placed between both beds. Eren was sitting on the edge of his bed and still didn't wear his pajamas nor got in between the blankets.

"If you lay down perhaps you'll feel sleepy sooner."

He looked at her and shrugged, clearing his throat.

"Hey… I know that in general I'd behaved as an imbecile today," he started saying, the tiredness reflected on his voice, "but I'm glad and it relieves me that you're okay after… everything that had happened," he said, raising his gaze up again for it had descended to his lap at some point. He was ashamed.

Mikasa nodded and covered her nose with her blanket. Her sleepy eyes were the only thing he could see.

"If I had been sober, I bet I couldn't have done much either," Eren continued, scratching the back of his head without any gentleness, "I'm still a weakling and worthless… in particular for your standards."

"My standards?" a small smile was kept hidden behind the sheets.

Eren gasped.

"I mean the Ackerman's standards. I guess. I don't know how to explain it. You are extremely strong and versatile," he observed the dim light that the lamp created, "You, specially, are very strong considering your build and, well… for being a girl. I guess the daily workouts must be very tough and exigent..."

"The workouts help, yes," she agreed after a yawn.

How could she act so indifferent? A bunch of bastards tried to abuse her and, just thanks to being an exceptional girl, she kicked their asses and killed almost all of them, but…

"Are you alright?" Eren asked her, "I mean, emotionally fine."

Mikasa settled softly in her bed, feeling pleased by his honest concern, "I am."

He contemplated her for a while, hoping for her to be saying the truth about it. He didn't want to bother her with that subject though, so he decided to come back to the particularity about the Ackermans. "There's something else, right?" he queried.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She let out a yawn.

The image of the man with the cut throat in the alley surged from Eren's mind as if it was a vague old memory.

"I mean that it's not only a thing about training and training, but that there's something else in you, your clan, that makes you stronger than normal."

"Oh, that. Yeah, but I would not know how to explain it, and I'm not going to try to do it now," she replied, tired, "I don't even think there's a logical explanation. Try to sleep, Eren."

"Don't you use some sort of drug?"

Mikasa let out a short giggle.

"Well, in that case… I can say Levi is an addict to tea. He drinks it a couple of times a day, every day."

Eren's lips stretched in a smile and let out a snort with a shake of his head. The movement made him a bit dizzy.

"I'll have to take some samples of that tea once we go back," he turned the light off, changed his clothes and got inside the sheets.

Mikasa had turned around once Eren left the room in the dark. She felt the air a bit heavy. It was a mix between the slight alcohol smell - thanks to the presence of his roommate - and the alteration of her way of breathing. It was the first time she was sleeping in the same room with a boy. Well, she had slept in the same room as Levi and other men before, but it was a completely different experience. Now there was her and Eren all alone. Without Levi, or Kenny, or anyone else.

It seemed that the young doctor had fallen asleep, finally, so she could listen to his encompassed breath. It gave her the impression that he was sleeping right beside her, in the same bed, and the sole thought made her face and body get hotter for a third or fourth time that day. She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else, whatever else, but she was way too nervous and her heart beat so hard that her eardrums rumbled.

She thought she knew what was happening and it embarrassed her. She didn't dare to even give it a name in her mind. She tried to control her breathing, bit by bit, so she could relax.

This damn mission had been qualified as easy and secure, but for Mikasa it was turning into the opposite, and she wasn't even taking into consideration the complicated situations experienced in the past hours, precisely.

"Hey, Mikasa…" Eren had woken up again, or maybe he hadn't fallen asleep as she'd thought.

The girl froze for a while. "What's up?"

"Nothing, it's just I was wondering why you didn't get drunk, when you drank more than me?"

She sighed. At least the question lessened the tension she'd been feeling.

"I don't know, I never get drunk with beer, at least… but you know what? It's already time to sleep. Good night, Eren."

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

The darkness, the fog and the drizzle of the morning was good for them. It was not easy at all to get into a private cemetery like that, reserved for the royal family and the closest nobles. Thankfully the poor sight helped them camouflage.

Between big and gorgeous marble statues and a bunch of gravestones, three people dressed almost in drags were wandering on their way to the Royal Mausoleum, which was standing white and elegant in the center of the green graveyard. The zone smelt like roses and wet grass.

The taller and buffed man used a hammer to break with just one hit the lock that secured the mausoleum. He took out the rest of the curvy metal, put it inside a pocket of his pants and opened the heavy door of carved wood.

A feminine voice was heard celebrating once they got inside and were left in complete darkness. The door squealed when they closed it at their backs.

"And then there was light," the woman lit up a little lamp with a smile, as the crystal of her glasses shone.

"We should hurry up," suggested the younger of the two men that were with her.

"Allow me to enjoy this moment, Moblit. I know you would prefer to be drinking right now, but come on!" she raised the small source of light and illuminated the different engravings on the marble walls, "Interesting. Hold this up," she gave him the lamp and took out a little notebook, where she started to scribble, "I'll go with Mike to look for the niche. Stay here on guard for a while and make drafts of the engravings."

Moblit nodded and took out his drawing notebook from a bag, as his partners went further in the shadows of the crypt. He heard the excited voice of Hange flouncing away and let out a wheeze, drawing as fast as he could the curious scenes engraved on the marbled walls.

"Oh, here! It's this one here!" Hange knocked the marble rectangle and ran a finger through the name that was written on it. She read aloud and in a solemn tone: "Frieda Reiss, loved daughter, sister and princess."

Mike got his nose closer to the stone and his nose-tips moved at the same time of his smelling, "I think there's a corpse inside," he said, as he introduced with precision a plain tool between the edges that fixed the stone rectangle in place. Dust fell as he scratched and moved the tool upside down.

"Gypsum?" questioned his partner, rubbing the dust between her index finger and thumb. Her eyes brightened up behind her glasses, "Shouldn't it be sealed with cement?"

Mike hurried the process up. He levered with another tool and started to take the stone out. At least they will not have to use the hammers to break the marble and make lots of noise.

Hange took notes on her notebook, copying everything that Frieda's tombstone said before Mike took it all out and lit up the inside of the niche.

The man pinched his nose. There was a coffin inside the hole. Its wood must had been beautiful at the beginning, even though now it showed up dull and damp. It was decorated with metal that was already rusted in some parts.

"There's definitely a corpse there," confirmed Mike, snorting.

"Moblit, help us," Hange called him.

The three of them took the coffin out as fast as possible and opened it. Moblit gasped when he saw Hange getting way too close to the dead person.

"Is that you, Frieda?" she whispered as she analyzed the corpse in high degree of decomposition.

Wasn't it that they embalmed every member of the Royal family? Were there exceptions in case of suicide? Or wasn't she embalmed because of the reasons they already suspected?

The deceased wore a delicate and high-quality white dress of high collar. The black and long hair rested on her shoulders and reached half of her arms. She had the little hands crossed over her chest and a gold chain was tangled between the phalanges of her fingers.

Hange examined what she could see of her dentition and opened her own mouth in an 'o' shape.

"Bring the fabrics. We take her with us right now."

"We're officially the Legion's body snatchers now," grumbled Moblit in a low voice when he stretched the filthy fabrics on the floor with Mike's help, who was covering his mouth and nose with a wrinkled handkerchief – it was surely his first and last tomb desecration.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

In the Ackerman's lair, a group of men sitting on a table were observing a young girl in a mix of annoyance and admiration. She seemed to have not tasted a bite of food in days. She was on her third ration of lunch and she had already asked almost everyone in the mess hall if they would eat their respective slices of bread. A few had said they wouldn't eat it and gave it to her without a problem, while others gave her half of it or just a bit. Though most of them had refused to give her anything, almost offended by her question.

"This girl will leave us without food by the end of the month," someone commented jokingly.

"Levi had said that we have to give them everything they need for today, especially food," an indifferent Volker explained, drinking what he had left of his apple juice.

"At least the baldy haven't repeated the plate," observed Bernard. He had the hand with which he hit Eren bandaged and immobilized, "Did you notice that sometimes he gives us looks as if he was expecting us to do something to him?"

Volker glanced at both members of the Legion. They accepted them that morning under the pretext that they both needed to strengthen their hand to hand combat. The name of the hungry girl was Sasha Braus, and the close-cropped boy was Connie Springer. Erwin Smith explained to Kenny that Sasha came from a town that survived mostly thanks to the hunting and that she was extremely skilled with the bow and arrow, so she could teach the group the use of that weapon, something that never hurts to know.

"Sasha…" Connie called her in a low voice, a bit tense, "The redhead is staring a lot at us. Perhaps he's angry because you haven't stopped eating."

She helped a bit of bread to pass with a big sip of water and exhaled, pleased, ignoring what Connie just said to her.

"Ah, the food here is delicious. How long ago since we ate grilled meat? I already lost the count."

Connie tugged her from the sleeve of her sweater with his eyes wide open.

"He's coming at us," he whispered, finally getting the attention of his friend.

"Huh, who's coming? The shorty Ackerman?" she asked in a hiss, curving her back forward and letting a piece of bread fall on the plate. She seemed a bit worried and looked at every direction in the dark mess hall.

The shorty one made her nervous, since he didn't have any expression on his face and didn't seem very friendly. In fact, he gave her the impression of being angry and she was scared thinking he was coming to scold her because of her exalted appetite, as many had already done through her life, especially her dad.

However, it was another person that was approaching them. She remembered him as one of the three men that received them among Levi Ackerman in the agreed point of encounter that morning - while her stomach was furiously roaring.

Sasha released the breath she had been holding up without even realizing. She took the piece of bread that had fallen before and put it inside her mouth in a quick movement, before giving Volker a clumsy smile adorned by some bread crumbs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this new chapter with all the eremika moments and the introduction of characters that are already known in the SnK Universe, but that were 'unknown' in this story so far ;)
> 
> If you like this story please remember to leave some kudos and comments~
> 
> Million thanks to Selena (Kaekiro) for her lovely feedback in chapter 5!


	7. Ambiguous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Heidi for helping me to quickly proof-read this chapter! I've been editing all the chapters a bit by myself before posting them, as I re-read the story and re-publish it on AO3, but my brain's been dead for the last couple of days and so I needed backup :x I couldn't Engrish.

When Armin finished the third and last class of the day, his young students remained seated with their eyes stuck on the drawing on the blackboard. A boy with short blond hair, whose expression tended to be serious, was now showing a wide smile. 

His eyes shone with resolution.

"I'll save money to board one of those hot-air balloons," he commented in a low voice to a kid wearing glasses who he sat next to. He was putting a notebook inside a satchel.

"That would be awesome, but you'll have to work and save for months… or years, don't you?"

Armin saw Falco come back to the taciturn demeanor that he wore most of the time. Both boys stood up and said goodbye to him, waving their hands.

"Have a good afternoon, Professor Arlert," Udo wished, while Falco nodded in Armin's direction with a little smile.

Was he this shy when he was that age?

"You too. See you next week," Armin replied.

He got more good wishes, goodbyes and some expression of gratitude from the other young students.

There were five established schools in Shiganshina. This was one of the schools that had more resources, so to say. Here the kid's families could, at least, buy notebooks and pencils and even send them with a snack that they could eat when they had the brief break in the middle of the morning. A few could even allow themselves books.

Armin worked in three different schools. He also taught reading and writing privately to the kids that didn't have time to attend lectures, since they worked several hours a day along with their parents or on their own.

The salon had fifteen rectangular tables and thirty chairs. Walls that once were white now had a tone more similar to beige in various spots from hands and fingertips. There also were drawings scattered about. In the low corner of the far wall was a drawing of a heart inside of which two names were written. Armin's thin lips formed a slight smile that relaxed his face, like whenever he spotted that naïve declaration of love.

He opened and closed his hands, which he had turned into a fist unconsciously. He picked up his things and put them inside his worn brown leather bag. He took a glance at his wristwatch. He still had more than one hour to take the ferry and arrive at the Heinrich University in Stohess. Twice a month he arrived on Wednesday's afternoon and returned to Shiganshina on Friday night. When he wasn't attending classes, he spent his time studying and reading in the University's library, which was the biggest in the Kingdom. There were only three libraries, one of which was the private library of the Royal family that was, of course, inside the Palace. Armin had the privilege of knowing it.

The next day, as soon as he left a lecture on Advanced Physics, he went straight to the library. There were some students and teachers reading in silence or looking for a special volume on the shelves. He was pleasantly surprised when he recognized Hange Zoe, his favorite science professor. Sadly, this semester she would not be giving any lectures.

She wore her dark hair in a typical disheveled ponytail and dressed in a white shirt, a buttoned sweater that was haphazardly buttoned and a long moss green skirt. Her glasses had slipped to the tip of her nose - something that didn't seem to bother her. She was focused on leafing through a book that she held over her forearm. When her search seemed to bear no fruit, she settled the glasses and carefully put the book in one of the spaces available on the shelves. Once she turned on her heels, Armin caught her and greeted her in a low voice.

"Armin, long time no see!" she whispered. She gave him a few pats on the back and looked up with bright eyes, "Say, did you got taller?"

"Not that I know," he replied, without hiding his joy to see her.

She brought a hand to her chin and scrutinized him.

"I get the impression that you did, how old are you? You look older."

Less than a year had passed since the last time Hange Zoe had given a lecture at the University.

"Twenty one," he said, shyly, "actually, I'll be twenty one in a couple of weeks."

"I see, when's your birthday? Will you celebrate it?" she asked, carelessly pointing the exit of the library. They started to get going.

"November third, but I never do anything for my birthday. I just spend my time with Eren and sometimes with Historia as well."

Hange raised an eyebrow when she heard the last name, then she snapped her fingers as if she remembered something.

"Ah, sure. Eren works for the Royal family, I almost had forgotten it," she smiled kindly but suddenly stopped, "Or used to work for them. I found out he ran away with a girl, have you heard from him?"

Eren has also been one of her students until a few months ago.

Armin swallowed.

"Y-yeah, I saw him recently. Everything's alright. He's still working for the Reiss."

Hange laughed between her teeth.

"Eren was always very passionate," she commented in a mischievous tone and the blond boy nodded, infected by her laughter. He didn't have to feel nervous around his teacher, despite the subject of conversation, "Though it would have never crossed my mind that he was the type to do that sort of thing."

"I should have imagined it," Armin murmured, scratching his nape.

"Do you know the girl in question?" she seemed interested.

He remembered Mikasa and blushed, "I've seen her a couple of times."

The teacher watched him from the corner of her eye.

"And what do you know about her?" when she asked, her voice sounded a bit higher-pitched.

Armin rested both hands on his bag, which he had put on his lap. His fingers drummed on the leather.

"Not much, to be honest. I know her name is Margot, that she is eighteen years old and that she is…"  _intimidating_ , he thought, "and that she is a charming girl."

Hange adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose, even though she didn't needed to, and nodded. Armin noticed a slight smile that he tried to attribute to how funny and unusual his friend's situation must seem to her.

"I bet she's charming," Hange said while contemplating the water fountain situated in the center of the yard. Her smile grew bigger.

As they continued talking about other topics, Hange gave him a granola bar that she made herself, which the boy was afraid would make him lose some teeth. It was very tasty, at least.

"The oatmeal cookies turn out very hard as well," the woman apologized, "but I soften them with a bit of milk. Tell me, Armin, how are you doing with your young students?"

"Very well! Today I had my last weekly class with the eleven and twelve year old kids of the South Shiganshina school. Though I've heard some teachers complain about how difficult the kids are, they behave for me."

"It's possible that the other teachers are very boring conservatives that also happen to be not so creative at teaching like you," she put a hand on the shoulder of her old student, "I have no doubt that your lessons escape the monotonous and typical. Variety is attractive to young people."

The boy opened his eyes slightly and smiled.

"Oh, thank you. I hope so," he said after a shy sigh, very grateful for the words of recognition and support from a person he admired, "Do you come to the University and to the library often?"

"Not as often as I would like to," she admitted, "my research and other personal obligations consume almost all my time, but I try to come once or twice a week, when I can and when I have to do it," suddenly she turned her sight at the sky as if she realized something. She let out a surprised gasp and asked for the time, standing up, "I have to go. I'm very glad that I was able to share some moments with you, Armin."

"Same, Professor."

"I hope we get to see each other soon around here," she said as she took out another granola bar and gave it to him, "Say hi to Eren for me whenever you see him." She gave him a smile and a last pat on the back before leaving, almost running.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Mikasa covered her mouth after a yawn. The house calls to the rich patients were turning insufferable. Thankfully, the tea and cookies that they served her while waiting for Eren to finish this last visit were delicious.

Hopefully he would finish examining the old woman soon. She was the fourth wife of a man that had widowed twice – a suicide and a heart-attack – and whose third wife left him for another man. Such a drama.

"It's curious because, in general, it's women who survive the men," Eren had said to Mikasa in an amused tone, shortly before arriving at the big house. It was situated away from the center of Trost, in the middle of a beautiful wooded area.

Despite the hangover with which he had awoken a few days ago, Eren had been in a good mood, he was even talkative. It was a good thing, of course, since he was talking for the both of them. Mikasa has never been good to start nor keep conversations. In her defense, it could be said that it wasn't like she had many options to talk casually or make friends with the exception of the people related to her clan.

Despite Eren's positive attitude, it was becoming increasingly difficult for Mikasa to continue pretending that they were a couple. She didn't dare to grab him by the arm now, and was even less inclined to take his hand. She was embarrassed at the thought of it, even.

They've been sharing the same room for three nights already, tonight being the fourth. Sometimes she felt her lungs lacked air to the point that last night she had to abruptly leave the room wrapped in a blanket. She spent a long time seated on a sofa in the small room that was next to the reception, since it was dark and empty at that hour. The fireplace was off and, only when she felt that the blanket wasn't enough and that she bit almost every nail while ruminating on various thoughts, she decided to go back to the room and to get into her bed. She found Eren sleeping soundly, feeling a certain relief that made her able to quickly surrender herself to sleep.

She chewed a cookie that had strawberry jelly and fine sugar sprinkled on top of it. It was _so good_.

Through the blurred window she could see that the rain has stopped and that the sky was beginning to brighten. Soon the sun would set and the next day the medical visits would end. Of course, Eren would dedicate some of his time to visit the ill that weren't on his official agenda: those who couldn't pay.

These visits were more appealing to Mikasa, for she could see Eren in action. He was very kind to people, especially to children, with whom he had a lot of talent. They stopped crying quickly in his presence and after his warm words. Maybe the key was that Eren never lied to them and the children responded well to his honesty.

Mikasa recalled the case of a nine year old kid that lived with his mother in a tiny house.

"This injection will hurt, but thanks to it you'll leave bed soon," Eren had said to the little one hiding under a bunch of dirty blankets, who didn't stop bawling  _I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna_ at an impressive speed. "I promise that in a few days you'll be feeling better and you'll be able to go out to play with your friends."

"I don't wanna, it scares me," the boy grizzled, making a fuss under the blankets and sniffling.

The kid’s mother looked at Eren, embarrassed because of the resistance of her son, but didn't say anything. They had agreed that she would not intervene while he tried to convince her child.

"I used to be scared of needles at your age too," the young doctor admitted, "I was able to overcome that fear little by little. One day I even got a tattoo."

"A tattoo?" the kid's head suddenly popped out of the blankets.

"Yeah, do you want to see it?"

After a nod, Eren carefully unbuttoned the upper half of his shirt, showing him whatever he had on his chest. Mikasa, who had been leaning in a wall, couldn't help but try to get a look as well, though she regretted it midways and stepped back, feeling how a brief warmth invaded her cheeks.

"Is that… a circle? Oh, a snake…? I like it," the kid murmured, smiling weakly, "Tattoos are done with needles, right? My dad used to have some too."

Eren didn't answer right away.

"I see," he muttered. "Yes, they're done with needles."

The kid seemed to weigh something mentally. He had a coughing attack and his eyes become flooded with tears.

"I'm tired of feeling bad," he sobbed, wiping the tears with his forearm and cleaning the snot with the spotted and tattered sheets, "and I wanna… get a tattoo… someday."

Eren exchanged a few more words with the boy and asked him to roll over and lay on his stomach. As expected, the kid whimpered after the painful penicillin injection, but in general he took it very well. When they said goodbye, Eren received a hug from the little one and from the grateful mother as well, to whom he promised to come back the next day before starting his return trip.

They were ready to abandon the humble house when the little patient made a gesture at the doctor for him to come closer. The kid whispered something in his ear and Eren's eyes widened. Both of them let out a knowing giggle.

"Yes, I've already noticed that," admitted Eren, glancing at Mikasa sideways.

When they left, the girl asked what was that the kid said to him.

Eren sketched a sly smile. "He told me that I had a very beautiful girlfriend."

Mikasa was taken aback and her face got lit as a lamp. She climbed into the carriage that was waiting for them as quickly as she could and turned her glance. Her face was so hot that her eyes got moist.

How could she lose control of her expressions so fast?

"What's wrong?" Eren asked once he got into the carriage and sat next to her. "Your ears are red," he commented, as casually as someone who's talking about weather.

Mikasa flushed again at the memory, but smiled while she was about to take the last cookie left on the silver tray. She heard two masculine voices echoing from the stairs. She cleaned her fingers with a serviette and straightened her dress after standing up.

The old man thanked Eren for the visit. Just as he did when they arrived, the man barely paid attention to Mikasa. He said goodbye to her in a cordial way, at least.

"This was the last one for today, right?" she knew it was the last patient, but she needed a confirmation.

"Yeah, and I'm already exhausted," Eren left his briefcase in one of the seats of the carriage and rubbed his eyes, "does it bother you if I ask Gustav to go directly to the hostel?"

"Why would that bother me?"

"I don't know, in case you wanted to go somewhere else. I've noticed that staying in the room is not of your liking," he murmured, "something is troubling you, isn't it?"

Mikasa brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I'll take a nap once we arrive," he informed as he didn't get an answer.

"It's fine," she said, "I can go out to take a walk so you can sleep peacefully."

Eren leaned his head in the padded backrest and turned slightly towards the girl.

"I thought you've already realized that I can fall asleep anywhere, even if there's noise and movement," his voice sounded tired as he settled in the seat and crossed his arms. He stayed quiet for some moments and added, "These last nights I slept better than usual. I think it's because I'm not alone."

Mikasa tried to focus in the road's landscape while she brought a cold hand to her cheek.  _What was this all about?_

"Sometimes I wake up at night anxious because of my dreams, but I listen to your breathing and it helps me calm down," Eren recognized, "Mikasa," he called her hesitantly, and she squinted at him holding her breath, "A couple of times I've heard you sobbing and stuttering things while you sleep…"

"I've woken you up?" she asked immediately, releasing her breath.

"The first time I heard you after I woke up by myself. The second time you were almost screaming," he explained, slightly embarrassed, "That was last night. I tried to calm you down by taking your hand and talking to you, but I ended… lying beside you and hugging you," the girl widened her eyes and Eren held up a hand, as if he was trying to avoid a slap that didn't come, "that was the only way you stopped crying. I fell asleep for a few hours… I guess. I returned to my bed as soon as I woke up because my feet were freezing. I wondered if you knew about this and if that's why you've been acting a bit weird with me, so I wanted to clear things up. Uhm… I'm sorry, I was just trying to help."

"No, I didn't k-know…" Mikasa shook her head, feeling her own heartbeats inside her ears, "I d-didn't know that y-you…"

Eren nodded slowly.

"Relax, I'm not going to do it again. I understand that it could seem inappropriate to you."

 _Seem inappropriate?_  Was it not something he considered inappropriate?

They didn't talk any further until they reached the hostel, where Mikasa said she would go for a walk and disappeared until nighttime.

Once she thought she recovered control over her emotions, she decided it was time to come back to the room. She found Eren sitting on the bed with his legs crossed, reading a newspaper. He was wearing a navy blue scarf, a sweater and wool socks. A small package of paper rested on the bedside table between their beds.

"That's for you," he announced, noting the place Mikasa's glance was heading. He left the newspaper aside, stood up and grabbed the package, "as a way of saying sorry."

She raised an eyebrow, receiving the gift. A pair of warm fingers brushed her skin and she tried not to think too much about it. She passed by and sat on her bed.

"Your hands are freezing," the boy pointed out.

"Thanks…" Mikasa mumbled after a few seconds of silence, ignoring his comment about her hands, "You have nothing to apologize about though."

"Of course I do, aren't you angry?" Eren sat near her.

"No. I just needed to walk for a while."

He shrugged at her response.  _A while_  has been three hours.

"Open it," he suggested as he realized she was holding the gift between the open palms of her pale hands, without doing anything else, "I hope you like it."

She carefully tore the paper. Inside of it was a hair pin in the shape of a flower. The base was of silver and the petals consisted of some pretty amethyst insets. It was almost like the one Mikasa had stolen on their first day in Trost, except for the superior quality and value.

"Eren…" she began, closing her hand around the cold metallic piece, "thanks, but…"

"It's nothing," he opened her feminine hand gently. It was still freezing. He took the ornament and placed it in her dark silky hair. He'd never done something like that. "It looks good," he concluded, contemplating his work with a smile that soon would disappear.

The youngest of the Ackerman had her glance fixed on a dead point. In a mechanical way, she touched her hair where she felt the weight of the pin and took it out, slowly, as tears slid through her cheeks.

Eren blinked, confused, wondering how it was that he fucked it up.

"Hey…"

"My mother used to put flowers in my hair when I was a child," she murmured, inexpressive. Except for the tears, there was no signal of pain on her demeanor. "In winter we played by making weird hairstyles for each other and we decorated them with this kind of pins," she moved the stone and metal flower swiftly between her fine fingers, "Seriously… I don't understand why you do this… Thanks, though."

Eren nodded unconsciously as he appreciated what Mikasa had just shared with him, for it could not be easy for her.

"I do it because that's what boyfriends do, don't they?" he replied suddenly with a teasing smile.

Mikasa rolled her eyes and wiped the tears with the back of her hand. She didn't feel inhibited as other times, maybe because of the amusing tone he had used. He must had remembered what she had said to him days ago. So annoying.

"Oh, sure, I almost forgot it," she said, trying to dim her own smile.

"In fact, I think you had forgotten it," Eren corrected her as he stretched carelessly on Mikasa's bed.

She raised her eyebrows slightly at what was said and the attitude of the boy, who was laying down on  _her_  bed and with his head resting on  _her_  pillow. She felt him behind her.

Seated and quiet in her place, she gave him a quick glance.

"What do you mean?"

"Your mattress is definitely more comfortable than mine," and the pillow smelled like Mikasa's hair.

"Eren…" she muttered, "I thought you were done with pretending we're a couple."

"Nah, at the end it wasn't as terrible as I thought," he confessed, settling himself like a cat that's about to take a nap, "bed swap?"

She felt tempted to tell him no, but remained silent. She moved to lay down on Eren's bed.

The mattresses were the same.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

"It's good you're finally here," said Moblit, relieved at the sight of Hange. "The commander got impatient and asked me to see  _Frieda_. He's already in the basement."

"Oh, that's fine," Hange replied, out of breath due to her haste. She had to look for her horse in the surroundings of the University. After moments of frustration, she ended up finding him near a pond that was at least two kilometers away from where she left him at the beginning. The animal swatted flies with its tail and drank water. When he saw his rider, he walked towards her and put his nose closer to her as a way of greeting, shaking his head.

Hange went down the stairs that reached the basement of her house, with Moblit coming right behind her. The place was lit and Erwin Smith was waiting beside a big rectangular container made of clay. His long fingers caressed his chin in a contemplative act.

"Erwin, I'm sorry for being late," Hange said as she took a look at the corpse inside the container, "What do you think about it?"

"Have you examined her teeth?" he asked in a calm voice, inquisitive blue eyes scrutinizing the dead girl.

"Yes and I doubt that a member of the Royal family would have such neglected teeth, much less Frieda."

The commander seemed to agree. There were photographs of Frieda where she appeared to be smiling, but there was nothing that showed her teeth in great detail.

"Otherwise," Hange pointed out a bunch of papers resting on her desk, "the height and general appearance come very close to the medical records that I've been checking, however they do not fit in a hundred percent. We have no certainty that this is, in effect, the body of Frieda Reiss."

"We need to speak with Eren Jaeger as soon as possible," Erwin said minutes later, after giving a quick look at the available information, "I'll speak with the Ackerman."

"Then we'll continue with the search?" asked Moblit, though with the determined glow in the commander's eyes he already knew the answer.

"Yes. Frieda Reiss is alive and we will not stop until we find her," the man stated.

He sat next to the desk and looked through the documents until he found the death certificates of the three younger children of the king and his wife. The three years old Florian, two years old Urklyn and Abel, a baby of only five months, didn't managed to survive an outbreak that affected a big portion of the population of the island. Back in the day, the king’s kids and wife were in charge of the more prominent doctors of Paradis, though they were not able to save them.

Since his offspring were dying, the king fell into despair until he received news of a young doctor in Shiganshina district that was able to save a large number of residents. He urgently called for him to save fourteen year old Frieda and sixteen year old Dirk. Both older children were still alive. The king also needed the doctor to treat himself and his brother Uri, who had started showing signs of contagion.

The doctor in question, of course, had been Grisha Jaeger.

Grisha left a record of all the treatments and deaths that happened in the Royal family, including the deaths of the three kids and the King's wife, followed by the accidental death of Dirk, the suicide of Uri Reiss and, most recently, the alleged suicide of Frieda Reiss two years ago.

Thanks to the information granted by Jaeger to the Ackerman, the Legion found out that the Royal family was prone to develop a rare mental illness called 'dementia praecox'. There was evidence that the king’s father and Uri Reiss thought to be under the influence of a God that sent them visions, messages and commands. As this occurred, the physical appearance and the social abilities of the affected deteriorated in a dramatic way.

From now on, the search for the princess would consist of the scarce asylums of the Kingdom since, curiously, Frieda had developed the same illness after the death of her uncle Uri.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any kind of feedback is greatly appreciated~
> 
> [Lawless' Eren fanart](https://kuchenackerman.tumblr.com/post/170665536975/kuchen-ackerman-these-beautiful-drawings-were-a) by [Lolakasa](http://lolakasa.tumblr.com/) <3


	8. Words

The artificial bird came out of his hole and sang a melodic  _cuckoo! Cuckoo!_  It then came back to hiding inside its ornate wooden refuge. Mikasa heard Levi swearing under his breath and muttering something about the  _damn clock_.

"And well?" Kenny inquired, lighting up his pipe as he rested his boots on the desk.

Levi, standing beside his uncle, crossed his arms over his chest and pierced the girl with a glance. He seemed to be asking her the same question.

Mikasa remained stoic on the chair in front of both of them, "And well, what?" she asked.

"We know about Trost," Levi said with some weariness. He was upset, but his frown revealed concern.

"Which thing, exactly?" Mikasa hoped that neither her voice nor her tone betrayed her own anxiety. If they found out that she has been arrested because she couldn't control her own impulses of…

"The idiots that you killed were members of a big drug trafficker gang," Kenny said, not beating around the bush as he put his feet on the ground and slipped his thumb over his beard.

Mikasa almost let out a sigh of relief when she learned it was about the fight with that disgusting group and she mentally thanked Annie for not being nosy.

Levi narrowed his eyes, but remained quiet as Kenny told Mikasa that the trafficker gang realized that the carnage was a work of nothing more and nothing less than an Ackerman. The problem lied in that, from now on, they will become a pain in the ass if they got the balls to bother their contraband transporting merchants.

Even though Annie tried to keep the real identity and the false identity of Mikasa protected, the way in which the matter with the narcs was handled pointed out that the victim was not a common person. They heard they were mulling over two options: the first one being that the victim was a member of the Ackerman clan, while the second one considered that said victim could be a protegée of the clan. All those who operated in the underworld knew the Ackermans were without a doubt the most skilled and lethal ones, and that only them could be able to throw such a performance.

"They don't know about Eren, do they?" Mikasa stood up, thinking about the incidents of that day, worried things could have gone wrong for Eren.

_Traffickers._

Thinking… that things could have ended in such a terrible way for her if she wouldn't have been able to defend herself.

_Traffickers_. The damn word repeated itself a thousand times inside her head and a sensation of vulnerability took her over.

'Drug traffickers', she said to herself, 'not human traffickers'. But one thing didn't take away the other. As far as she knew, they could devote themselves perfectly to both businesses. She felt like throwing up and unconsciously brought a hand to her mouth.

"No, but one of the bastards was captured alive and was babbling stuff about you," Levi explained cautiously, surrounding the desk to get to her, "We took care of him some days ago, we have that under control."

Mikasa nodded, frowning as she embraced herself and rubbed her arms slightly with a lost expression. Levi made her sit down.

"Passiflora tea, right?" Kenny asked before leaving the office, not waiting for an answer. He took a quick glance at the girl and let out a curse as he fastened his pace.

Sometimes he wished Mikasa was a boy. That Kuchel - his own sister - would have born with a dick between her legs. Maybe that way, at least, she would be still alive.

He clenched his teeth.

Years ago, when Levi arrived with small Mikasa in between his arms, Kenny had the certainty that things would get complicated. Women were a magnet for problems. Being born a woman in this fucking world meant guaranteed problems.

He remembered that pale girl with sad and strangely curious little eyes, trying to sneak a peek of the inside of his office, with her hair almost as black as his own soul. Back then, for Kenny, it was incredible that there could be someone even shorter than Levi in that place.

"What are you doing here? Whatcha want?" he demanded, frowning.

"What is _fuck_?" she asked, blinking.

Kenny raised an eyebrow.

"Ask Levi," he said, trying to close the door, but Mikasa crossed a foot in its trajectory to impede it.

_Well, well._

"I already did it and he said, 'ask Kenny'", the girl complained.

The man rolled his eyes and let her in. He saw the hint of a little smile on Mikasa's lips and felt a slight and unusual warmth inside his chest. Ugh, he despised her! He hoped she grew up fast and left the place. She's been almost two years around there, annoying him with her damn presence.

The midget rested both arms on the desk as if she was waiting for Kenny to sit down at the other side and give her the long explanation she needed. Sadly, it ended up being shorter than what she imagined it to be and she continued understanding nothing.

Mikasa mimicked the gesture that Kenny had just done with his hands. She pressed the tip of her index finger with the tip of her thumb, forming a circle, and then she used the index finger of the other hand to trespass that circle.

"This is  _fuck_?" she asked with mistrust, "and you say it's the same as  _to fuck_?"

"Yeah," he said, pushing her towards the exit, "Now go bother somewhere else. I'm busy."

The girl shrugged and repeated the strange gesture. It didn't make sense. She imitated it several times.

"Stop it!" Kenny scolded her, separating her hands. 'Goddamn brats', "If you do that again I'll give you the same haircut Levi wears, did ya hear me, shoddy midget?" Mikasa's disgusted grimace made him double up with laughter.

Kenny remembered that he had Mikasa visiting his office again a few weeks later on her twelfth birthday. It was late at night when he and Levi were talking about important matters. None of them understood what was Mikasa doing down there in the lair, when she should have been sleeping in the house, upstairs.

She was wearing one of her long pink pajamas that now revealed some weird dark stains on the lower area. Her hair was stirred, face pale and her mouth half-open with a terrified expression. Her hands were resting on her underbelly.

"I'm bleeding," she said with a trembling voice. It was obvious she'd been crying.

It was then that they realized the stain on the floor and the trickles of blood that slipped between her legs.

Kenny's eyed widened. Levi hurried up to get to where the child was standing. He pressed her shoulders and started to ask her what happened and who hurt her.

"Who? Tell me right now, Mikasa, because I'm going to kill him," Levi threatened with the coldest and calmest voice Kenny had ever heard coming from him.

The Ripper put a hand on one of the best knives that he had on his desk. He had just polished and sharpened them. The motherfucker that dared to touch Mikasa would die that night, but before that they would take care of skinning him as he still breathed.

The girl was shaking her head after every question Levi threw at her, and she writhed slightly.

"No o-one, I haven't seen anyone," she said between her teeth after another spasm of pain, "When I went out of the bed I saw that there was blood and I got scared when I realized from where… Ugh, shit, am I dying? It hurts…"

Kenny let out a sudden laugh and Levi pierced him with his stare, outraged.

"What the hell?"

Before his nephew could give him a punch or something worse, Kenny raised his hands and continued laughing.

"The hell are you laughing at?" demanded Levi, clenching his teeth.

"It's the damn period!" Kenny said, finally. He released all of the tension he'd accumulated through his laugh, "It's the fucking period, it happens to every girl."

"Period?" Mikasa asked, confused, and her sight went down to the threatening stain of blood that she left on the ground.

"Look, I have no idea how it works, I just know that it happened to my sister too," Kenny explained, clearing his throat after he controlled his giggles. "It's women's stuff. Women are weird creatures so… well, one of them should explain it to you, I don't know. Traute could explain it to you, for example, she's one of the weirdest, huh?"

Levi blinked. He had no fucking clue about that period shit, obviously.

"Stop looking at me that way. Your mom also stained her bed, more than once," Kenny informed with a grimace, "I think she bled every month for about a whole week and she survived. Girls are tough," he pointed at Mikasa with his index finger and offered her a clumsy smile, "You're not gonna die, brat."

And of course, the brat didn't die.

After Traute explained to Mikasa how that women stuff worked, she suggested to Kenny that he get a ton of compresses, some herbs to drink as infusions and other things that could aid Mikasa during those bloody moments. Kenny had even ordered a surprised Levi to get a ton of chocolates and then realized that Traute had devoured a lot of them. She alleged innocence with that typical indifference of hers, even though she had bits of chocolate in one of the corner of her lips.

Years passed by and they almost always realized that Mikasa was on her days of bleeding because they saw her drinking specific infusions and sporadically rubbing her belly in the middle of training. There were days where she didn't train in an intense way, but she never ducked out unless she was feeling awful. Sometimes she turned more irritable or a bit more sensitive, but nothing really drastic happened to her. With the exception, maybe, that she hit way more strongly and that sometimes she got a pimple in the middle of her forehead, like a unicorn. If Kenny mentioned that detail, Mikasa would give him a killer look. Once he had the fantastic idea of making a joke about her being a Military Police infiltrate because of her pimple: he earned a savage kick in the shinbone that made him leak the most painful tears of his life.

Weird creatures, women.

When Mikasa turned fifteen, besides her physical and academic training, Kenny added a _teacher_  who would be in charge of training her in the use and abuse of female ruses. Despite being magnets of problems, women were capable of having incredibly effective weapons that worked in their favor. It was of tremendous importance that the youngest of the Ackerman was able to use these tools with the purpose of obtaining big advantages when she interacted with or faced men. The advantages went from getting something in exchange without having to resort to violence, to using female ruses as a distraction to come out of a dangerous situation gracefully.

Kenny had no doubt that her niece had put these theories into practice the moment those perverts approached her at the tavern and took her with them. She was an intelligent and quick-witted girl, she surely used everything she has learned. She knew how to distract them, she knew how to annihilate them, and thanks to that she freed herself from a situation that could have traumatized her more than she already was. She had suffered enough in that short life of hers.

Unlike Levi, Kenny didn't know what to do with people that cried or were in the middle of an emotional crisis. He had always been a witness of the start of those crises but never of the whole development of them, and Mikasa had suffered a good amount of crises since she had lived with them. Kenny knew that they were triggered by some memories, words and objects… He damned himself mentally; he should have used another word to refer to the fucking drug traffickers, or maybe just mention the inconveniences of the results of Mikasa's encounter with those bastards.

He came back to his office bringing a steamy mug of passiflora tea, that was supposed to help her calm down, just as Grisha Jaeger suggested them some time ago. Kenny thought that maybe he should have asked if she also needed to drink the other herbs, the ones that helped her to alleviate her girly pains. He should have brought a bit of everything, including chocolates, just in case.

He observed her with attention and he asked himself how many years she had now, eighteen? Nineteen? The brat had grown up so much so quickly. Ironically, she still looked like a child when she wore that demeanor in between being terrified and anguished as she pressed her legs against her chest.

Kenny gave the mug to Levi, who was seated on the floor near Mikasa, and left them alone.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

When Eren arrived that afternoon to the Ackerman's lair with Mikasa, Levi had been waiting for them at the entrance of the empty mess-hall with his arms crossed and his typical annoyed expression.

"Go to Kenny's office," Levi ordered Mikasa after a quick look. She hesitated for an instant but did what he said without saying a word. Levi did a gesture to Eren, "and you go to wait for dinner," he said.

Eren looked for an isolated table and waited. The same old faces were arriving, and he knew almost everyone there by sight. Most of them never said anything to him, just a few exchanged some words or superfluous conversations with him, like the little group that was having a quiet dinner at a short distance and who had not given him even a glance so far. It was that idiot, Bernard - who kept the two broken fingers of his left hand immobilized, and whose eye has been healing after the beating given by Levi - the corpulent Luther and Volker, the redhead.

It was always difficult to estimate time underground, but Eren had eaten already and to him, it seemed like dinner time was coming to an end. There was no sign of Mikasa yet. She didn't usually eat there, though he thought that maybe they could have dinner together.

He felt tired and was sleepy, and he got the impression that he took a nap with his head resting in one hand, because he felt a small fright when his arm bent a bit and his head fell onwards. He saw the soup a few centimeters away from his face and moved it to the side, straightening and rubbing his eyes.

He saw Kenny sneaking briefly through the mess-hall, where he did a short exchange with the man that played the waiter.

Eren frowned when he noted the serious demeanor of the Ripper. Maybe there was a serious problem.

"Huh, hey, Eren… are you going to drink your soup?" a feminine voice asked suddenly by his side.

A girl with big brown eyes was smiling at him awkwardly. It was the first time he saw her around there. Actually, it was the first girl he saw down there besides Mikasa and an old lady that seemed to work in the kitchen.

"I'm not going to drink it, it's cold already," he replied as he realized about the short, close-shaven guy sitting in front of him. He hadn't seen him around there until now.

"Hi, Eren Jaeger," he greeted him with friendliness, "I'm Connie Springer and this is Sasha Braus, we're part of the Legion."

Sasha took Eren's soup away, drank it in one big sip and cleaned her mouth with a cloth napkin that she wore hanging from her neck. The girl thanked him and Eren nodded, turning to Connie.

"From the Legion?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Armin would have already given him a pat on the back murmuring 'I told you' with his worst know-it-all tone if he was there. The rumor of the existence of the Legion was almost as shady as the rumor about the Ackerman and Kenny, their star figure.

It was said that the Legion was a group that differed politically from the Monarchy and the noblemen and that it was against the established order, but their existence has never been confirmed. The rebel group had the character of an urban myth. They've never announced nor said anything in a public way. At most people used to attribute some graffiti on the walls of some houses and the organization of small protests in which all the assistants ended up incarcerated for public disorder, though just for a brief period of time.

Connie and Sasha looked like common youngsters, like the ones you found in the street rejoicing coarsely about the nonsense they have done or said. Nothing else.

"What are two members of the Legion doing here, with the Ackerman?" Eren inquired. The word Legion sounded way too dramatic and definitely didn't match with the pair of grinning teenagers that were with him.

"The Commander sent us because we lack 'discipline'" Sasha said, cringing at the pronunciation of the word, "Though maybe because we can be useful here as well. Me, at least."

"Hey! I can be useful too," Connie defended himself.

Sasha grinned mockingly, "Really? And how?"

"Well, in first place everyone knows I'm a genius. In second place, I'm very agile and hard to catch," he said inflating his chest and giving a proud tap with the fist in the center of it, "Or haven't you seen how all these guys end up tired after trying to get me and hit me for hours?"

"Oh yeah, you're right! Being a shorty helps you to be more slippery than someone of normal height," Sasha gave him some pats in the head and Connie pushed her hands away.

"So annoying. I've told you a million times that this is not my definitive height," he said looking at Eren sideways, a bit ashamed, then he faced Sasha again, "My dad is a very tall dude and he used to be as…  _short_  as me at this same age. You'll see in a few years, dummy."

"What's your skill, Sasha?" Eren asked, smiling involuntarily at the familiarity with which they got along and at how relaxed they seemed.

"I'm very skillful in archery," she said as she pointed and tensed an invisible bow.

"She has an amazing aim," seconded Connie, throwing a bit of bread into the air. Sasha devoured it in a very weird jump, "and a big appetite."

"So I see," Eren nodded. These strange guys were very nice. He gave them a glance and smiled at them, but then he remembered Kenny's seriousness and the fact that he still didn't know anything about Mikasa, so he ended up taking a look at the mess-hall.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Connie looked around and smirked, "Your girlfriend, perhaps?"

"Ah! When is she coming? We want to meet the Ackerman girl," Sasha said before giving a nibble to a big baguette.

"Uhm, she and I are not-" Eren started explaining in a low voice.

"Is she pretty?" Connie interrupted him.

"Does she prefer sweet or salty things?" asked Sasha.

"You've kissed already and more than that, right?"

"Connie! That's rude to ask," Sasha scolded him. Then she addressed Eren with a big smile, "What's important is to know when are you getting married because my dad never let me attend a wedding, and now I can totally go to one."

Eren let out a hysteric laugh when Volker, Luther and Bernard turned around to stare at him from the other table with curiosity.

"Guys, look, we're not-" Eren started again.

"I've only gone to my neighbor's marriage," Connie said, interrupting him once again, "It was awful."

"At least you've gone to one. My parents married when I wasn't even born," Sasha said.

"Really? Mine too!" Connie said.

"Eren, can I be the godmother?"

"I want to be the godfather!"

"If you want I can hunt a couple of wild boars for the banquet."

"A couple? Damn, Sasha."

"It's very little? I can also hunt some turkeys and-"

"It's just you're a hog."

"And you, a shrimp!"

"How many times do I have to explain to you that…?"

Both teenagers kept arguing noisily and making suggestions about a possible wedding. Eren had remained silent, shrinking little by little on his seat without realizing and bringing his hands near his face. The few members of the clan that still were in the mess-hall already turned in the direction of his table, interested in the curious subject of the conversation. Some looked incredibly serious, probably annoyed by the hurly-burly, while others gave him mocking smiles.

In the right moment when Sasha and Connie started proposing names for the future children that - according to them - he and Mikasa would have, Levi appeared with a not-friendly-at-all face.

"I suggest that you call them 'Shut the fuck up'", Levi said, giving Connie a noisy slap on the head, "and 'Dinner is over'", he took the last piece of bread from Sasha and threw it to the floor.

The young members of the Legion got pale and remained open-mouthed. Eren, on the other side, felt embarrassed.

"Pick up and clean all the dirty dishes. Clean the tables, broom and mop the floor. I'll come to supervise everything in two hours. Quick, move your asses," said Levi. Sasha, Connie and Eren got up swiftly to start with the assigned tasks, "Not you, Jaeger. Don't be an idiot." Levi gave him a cold glance, "Come with me."

Eren followed him and cleared his throat as they walked through the gloomy passage.

"Is it true that those guys are members of the Legion?" Eren asked and Levi continued walking in front of him, without responding.

He opened and closed doors that Eren had never gone through before and stopped in front of a big wooden and iron door. Levi turned around and looked at the boy with a tired expression from behind a gas lamp that he just lit up, taking it from a squared hole in the wall.

"Yeah, they're members of the Legion," he replied at last, "Some rowdy brats that aren't older than sixteen and that are about eleven years old mentally, from what I see. Get in and wait," he did a gesture with his head so Eren got inside the darkness of the unknown place he had in front of him.

Eren heard Levi lock some bolts, then he told Eren to follow him through some stairs. At the end of it, Levi opened a final door that took them to the homely inside of what seemed to be a standard house.

"Your room is on the second floor," Levi informed and Eren followed him, bewildered.

His new room was an actual room, not a dungeon like the one in which he had been living lately - a few meters underground. Here there was a window with dark green curtains, a bed that seemed comfortable, one little night table and a desk of cherry wood with a chair. There was also an old carved wooden wardrobe. The walls had a beige tone and the room had parquet floor. A small maroon rug decorated the floor near the bed.

"The bathroom is the first door at the right from the stairs. You have to always knock before getting in there," there was a slight tone of threat in his voice, "The kitchen is on the first floor, near the entrance to the basement. Now get a nap or do whatever you want, but don't nose into the rest of the rooms I didn't mention, is that clear?"

Eren nodded.

"Everything's clear, but what about my stuff?" he asked as he counted the doors that the second floor had. There were four, counting the bathroom.

"You can bring your stuff later, when your training is over."

Training. Shit. Eren realized in the tiredness he was feeling and in that he didn't know if he was going to be able to train in a dignified manner with Volker that night, but he preferred to not say anything and just limited himself to nod.

"Who else lives in this house?" he asked before Levi left.

Levi's eyes diverted towards the door next to the bathroom.

"Mikasa, me and sometimes, Kenny."

"Mikasa's room is also on this floor?" Eren asked with a bit of enthusiasm and Levi glared at him.

"Yes," he said, sharply, "We'll have a conversation later, Jaeger."

"Huh?" Eren blinked, "A conversation about what?"

Eren collapsed. The sweat went down through his forehead and irritated his eyes. The sweat from his torso wet his shirt and moist his short pants. He tried to give himself a good grip with his hands and knees so he could stand up, but a stomp on his back made him return to the ground and cut his breathe out.

"Get up," Levi ordered, without taking his foot from him.

The guy muttered a curse as he rested on his elbows, tightened his aching abs and tried to pull himself up.

Levi clicked his tongue and removed his foot. "You're going to do five hundred more crunches, you'll take a bath because you stink in every sense and then you'll go to sleep. That's all for today."

Levi's steps went away and Eren turned on his back. He extended his arms and breathed, again and again. His whole body ached. He felt as though he was dying, but at the same time he felt more alive than ever. After a long while stretched on the ground, he sat up and pulled his wet shirt off.

He rested his head on the wall as he regulated his breath, let out a laugh and rubbed his eyes - they were stinging.

Where was Volker and what kind of conversations were these?

He counted five hundred crunches, barely, near collapse. Worn out and confused, he got up as well as he could. He walked as if he was drunk, and headed up until he got to the bathroom, crashed into the wall and turned the handle of the door.

"But what-? Eren?"

Eren came completely to his senses in a second and his eyes widened. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

"For fuck's sake, Jaeger. I'm in the middle of a shit, get the fuck out and learn to knock the damn door!"

It was Kenny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A minute of silence for those who thought he was going to find a sensual Mikasa coming out of the shower or something typical lmao
> 
> I don't really have energy to re-check this chapter, but I'm gonna take a look at it some other day in case there's something weird. 
> 
> Thanks to Chompyboigalliard for commenting chapter 7!


	9. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate all the new kudos and loved Selena's (Kaekiro) nice feedback in chapter 8 ❤

Eren slammed the door shut and remained static in his place. He couldn't believe he just saw Kenny Ackerman smoking a cigarette and reading the newspaper while taking a shit. It would be difficult to forget the image of his wrinkled pants laying over his shoes, exposing his long hairy legs, the black hat hanging on one of his gnarled knees and the offended expression written all over his old face.

"Eren?"

Mikasa came out of the closest room to the bathroom. She was wearing a long green sweater.

"Hey!" Eren walked towards her with a chuckle dancing on his lips, "You won't believe what just happened."

"Your shirt disappeared?" Mikasa made a quick gesture with her chin to point at his naked torso and looked away.

"Huh?" the boy looked down. "Ah, no. I had training and… crap, I forgot to bring my stuff up!" Eren let out a groan. He didn't have the energy to go back downstairs.

"Don't worry," Mikasa said. "I left your stuff in your new room while you trained with Levi."

"I see. Thanks, Mikasa," he smiled at her. The wet shirt that he abandoned downstairs could wait until tomorrow.

"If you need it, you can go to the other toilet on the first floor," she suggested, a bit indifferent. "Though it only has a sink and a toilet, not a bathtub."

"I just need to take a bath," he said, scrutinizing Mikasa's face. Her eyes were a bit reddened and she looked just as tired, if not more than him.

"Then you'll have to wait. Kenny takes a ton of time in there."

Eren slipped a hand through his sweaty hair and asked himself how long exactly he would have to wait. His eyelids had started to feel heavy but there was no way he would go dirty like that to a bed he hadn't even had used yet.

"And why didn't he use downstairs' toilet?" he grumbled aloud by mistake.

"He almost never uses it. This is his… favorite toilet."

 _Favorite toilet_ , what the fuck Kenny? Eren sighed and leaned his shoulder on the wall.

"All in all, what I was going to tell you," he summed up in a humorous tone. "When I came up I was so tired I forgot to knock," he pointed at the bathroom a couple of meters behind with a thumb, "I opened the door and I met up with your uncle inside. He was taking a shit. It will be a memory hard to forget, without a doubt."

Mikasa blinked as if she was trying to assimilate what he had just said. He saw her grimacing and pursing her lips until her eyes got lighted up and her lips stretched in a grin. She started to laugh. She had such a delicate and singing laughter. It was so nice to listen to and Eren wished it would last longer.

"Did he say or do something to you?" she asked after covering her mouth, silencing her cute laughter, "Eren?"

"Sorry, what?"

"If Kenny said or did something to you."

"Oh, yeah," he answered quickly, massaging his nape. He was beginning to feel awkward. The sweat had already dried and he felt his skin sticky. Shit, he must have had an awful smell! He was sure Mikasa had already noticed it. "After addressing me with some kind words, he told me to get the fuck out and to learn to knock the damn door."

She let out a giggle and Eren slyly took a step to the side. He must go to his room. Maybe put his stuff in order until Kenny vacates the bathroom, whatever instead of continuing chatting with Mikasa while he was half naked, filthy, sweaty and stinky in the middle of the hallway.

He opened his mouth to tell her that he was going to go wait in his room, but she went ahead of him.

"That tattoo…" she started saying in a soft, shy voice. Her glance was fixed on the black ink drawing over his left pectoral, "how long have you had it?"

"Some years ago," he said. Even though he liked to talk with her, this wasn't the best moment to do it, much less talking about thorny issues, "See, Mikasa, I think that-"

"It's all yours, kid," Kenny announced when he suddenly came out of the bathroom. He put on his hat and made a farewell gesture as he went downstairs.

"Finally!" Eren let a sigh of relief.

"Wait," Mikasa asked. She disappeared inside her room for an instant and came back with a folded towel.

Eren, grateful, received the clean towel.

"I'll tell you about this another day," he said, putting his fingertips over his chest, "Good night. See you tomorrow?"

Mikasa nodded slowly, "Good night, Eren."

Except for the lavender flowers inside a simple crystal vase, the bathroom was completely white. It had a small frosted glass window, a bidet, toilet, sink and a huge porcelain bathtub with iron legs.

Eren got astounded when he opened the faucet because he got hot water after a few minutes. Having a gas water heater was a luxury worthy of the wealthy King's butt-lickers, and the Ackermans had one. He put the plug into the drain and waited until the tub was half full before undressing. He let out a sigh of pleasure when his skin and muscles became more relaxed at the contact of the liquid warmth surrounding him.

There was a small table with four soap bars next to the tube. Three of them were already used, while the fourth one seemed brand new. On top of this one, a piece of paper had his own name written. It was an elegant, round shaped, well-kept calligraphy. He was certain that feminine handwriting belonged to Mikasa.

He took the soap bar and brought it to his nose. It had a nice musky and citric scent, similar to the perfume he tended to use for special occasions, and of which there was not even a drop left. Actually, the last time he used it was for the ball at the Royal Palace. Mikasa seemed to notice and even remember it, curiously.

"So thoughtful," Eren murmured as he sank the soap under the water.

Thanks to his tiredness and the bath (that helped him in a great way), Eren slept like a log. Though when he tried to stand up his whole body hurt, especially his abs, shoulders and arms. He stretched himself carefully and groaned a bit when he got out of bed.

The clock at the wall showed it was past eight in the morning, so everyone must be in the mess-hall having breakfast. He took out some clean clothes from the suitcase that Mikasa had left near the wardrobe, got dressed swiftly and went out of the room. He would put everything in order and put his clothes in place when he came back.

When he was at the first floor, he saw Mikasa peeking from the kitchen.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going downstairs for breakfast, you're not going?"

"You can have breakfast here," she suggested with a gesture of her head. She went back inside the kitchen and Eren followed her.

She took a steamy cup that smelt marvelously.

"Hot chocolate?" it's been a long time since he last had one because these were super expensive. His mouth watered.

"Yeah," Mikasa put a clean cup on the counter and poured the brown and thick liquid. "This one is for you."

Eren sat in front of the cup, grinning like a small child that just got his favorite candy.

"Thank you," he said after taking a warm sip. He noticed Mikasa was wearing her pajamas. It was a camisole similar to the one he had seen her wearing when they stayed at the hostel. "Do you always have breakfast here, alone?"

"Sometimes Levi eats with me."

"Sometimes?" Eren raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What about when you were a small girl, did you also had breakfast alone most of the times?"

"No. Levi was always with me during that time. He did breakfast for me," she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Now's not necessary for him to do so. I'm not a child anymore."

Of course she wasn't a child anymore. She had changed a lot since the last time he casually saw her, when he was a child too.

They should have met each other in one of his father's house calls, but life brought them to meet up under different circumstances. The funny thing was that they ended up meeting anyways and that they were there now, sipping on their hot chocolate together at eight in the morning. Living in the same house.

Eren felt comfortable with her presence. She seemed to be such a nice girl despite the negative impression he had of her after all the abduction business and the hard times that flourished after… other problematic situations.

He couldn't believe that he even ended up behind the bars in Trost's police station because of this girl.

"What's so funny?" Mikasa asked.

Eren didn't realize he was smiling.

"Nothing," he said.

"Your silly grin says something else."

Eren leaned his elbow on the table and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. His silly grin started to fade as he glanced at Mikasa. Her hair was neat, not stirred in a funny way like she used to have it when she woke up. Did she brush it? It seemed so.

Her eyes were shining under her long eyelashes. She was somewhat haggard. There was a chocolate stain on her rosy lips. She had a little mole at one side of her neck and a superficial scratch on her clavicle – she must have done it by herself without even realizing. The fabric of the camisole embraced her narrow shoulders and stretched over her bulging chest, which went up and down faster than regular breathe.

Eren stopped his inspection in an abrupt way once, through the fabric, he noticed two little tips that subtly protruded from Mikasa's breasts. He glanced down to his hot chocolate cup, now tepid, and finished drinking it in silence.

After a prudent time, he raised his glance and found a flustered Mikasa. She suddenly reacted and started to do things, a bit frenetic. She stirred something inside a steel pot, served part of the content in a pair of bowls with the help of a big wood spoon. She put one of the bowls in front of him. It was oatmeal porridge with fruits.

"Thanks," Eren looked at her sideways. "Sorry if I bothered you."

It has not been his intention to openly stare at her female attributes, but he was neither feeling guilty nor regretted doing so because he didn't stare as if he was a damn pervert. He just contemplated her without thinking about anything specific.

He hoped Mikasa realized there were no lascivious intentions on his part.

He saw Mikasa bringing a spoon of porridge to her mouth. She didn't seem annoyed or offended. Her hand didn't tremble as she ate and neither was there a straight signal that indicated she was still nervous, except perhaps for the blush she kept on her cheeks, but Eren knew that blushes didn't disappear just like that.

He'd seen her blushing many times back in Trost and, he wasn't going to lie, he found these attitudes of hers were adorable. The snippy, cold and blank behavior in which she had performed at the beginning gave him the impression of being mostly defensive, while the girl with whom he had been sharing the past few days seemed to be the authentic Mikasa. It was evident that she had started to trust him more, and he had the certainty that he could trust her completely. It wasn't due to the influence of his father's words written on his posthumous letters, but it was what his own instinct dictated to him.

He trusted Mikasa and enjoyed her company.

He liked that she was his friend.

"Did you know that there are two members of the Legion here?" Eren asked casually.

"Yes, two fifteen year-olds. Kenny told me." Mikasa replied softly.

"Sasha and Connie" he pointed out, "Did you meet them already?"

"Not yet. Did you?"

"I had dinner with them yesterday. They seem to be good guys and they are so… funny." He remembered the nonsense about the wedding and the children that, according Connie and Sasha, he and Mikasa would have. They were so funny.

Eren tasted the porridge and let out a little moan. "This is delicious," he smiled at her and started to devour the food.

She offered him more and Eren accepted, content. Along with more porridge, she also gave him some bread, cottage cheese and a lot of orange juice.

"Oh, shit," Eren gasped, feeling as though he could barely move, "I ate way too much."

"Levi's trainings can be harsh. You must eat well."

"So, from now on I'll train with Levi instead of Volker, huh?" Levi, unlike Volker, didn't seem very merciful.

Mikasa nodded.

"Volker is training the guys from the Legion now."

"I see," Eren rubbed his stomach, "Yesterday Levi just told me that we would have 'a conversation later', but instead of that I received thousands of directions per second until I suddenly found myself at the verge of a cardiac arrest."

"A conversation?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess that's the name he gives to the trainings, doesn't he?"

"I doubt that," Mikasa brought a finger to her chin.

Eren shrugged.

"Whatever," he stood up from the chair with a groan, "I'll go to my room. I need to rest a while, do you want to come with me?"

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Levi still didn't finish drinking his second morning tea when Kenny told him to go down to his office in about ten minutes.

"What's going on?"

"We have visitors," Kenny said before leaving.

The visitors ended up being four members of the Legion.

First was the bushy eyebrows blond sat in front of Kenny's desk. The name was Erwin Smith, the Legion's leader. Levi had met him a few weeks ago but hasn't exchanged more than some brief greetings with him. As far as he knew, the rebel group called him Commander. He was the type of person that was difficult to read, however, Levi had to admit the man had an imposing air and appeared quite confident in himself.

Then there was the guy that kept alcohol instead of water inside the canteen he brought with him. Levi had already seen him take a couple of sips. He didn't look comfortable in the lair, but at least he tried to maintain a quiet demeanor. The name was Moblit Berner.

The woman of the group, Hange Zoe, was the only one that greeted them with an excessive familiarity, even though neither he nor Kenny had ever seen her before in their fucking lives. She was interested in the office's decor and seemed to love the damn Cuckoo clock, asking Kenny where he got it.

"It was a gift from a good friend of mine," he said.

A  _mysterious_  good friend who was probably just as insane, if not more, than his uncle, Levi thought. Sometimes he wondered who that friend was.

Levi frowned when Mike Zacharias - the taller and bulkiest dude from the group – came closer to him and started to sniff at him.

"What the hell?" Levi grumbled, getting away from him.

Mike smiled to himself and nodded. Did he even know how to speak?

"Don't worry about Mike," Hange said as she noted what just happened. "He always smells people when he first meets them and then smiles. I guess it's one of life's mysteries."

Levi looked at her sideways and then glanced at Mike. He decided not to say anything.  _Bunch of freaks._

"Ha!" Kenny nonchalantly pointed a knife at Mike, wearing a wily smile on his face as he put his feet up on the desk. "Don't even think about getting closer to me, boy. Later you can smell my shit and try to figure out what I ate if you want, but I don't fancy having someone sniffing at my neck at all."

Levi rolled his eyes.

Erwin removed a fluff from the sleeve of his jacket

Moblit was on the verge of drinking from his canteen again when Hange put a hand on his forearm, interrupting him.

"Returning to the topic that calls us," she resumed. She took a step forward and took a seat next to Erwin, "We got the corpse as planned, we studied it and compared the state of it with the available information about Frieda and the official funerary rituals of the royal family. In the first instance, we confirmed it is a female individual with a build and height similar to Frieda's. It even shares the same hair color and length. However, particularly striking is the fact that the body was not subjected to the embalming process that applies to all members of the royal family. Among other things, we suspect the denture does not correspond to the one of the supposed defunct woman."

Kenny didn't seem impressed by the delivered information.

"Do you have pictures of the corpse? I wanna see them," he said, extending a hand.

"We don't have pictures of the corpse," Erwin clarified. "But we have some portraits that are a faithful copy of the reality," the man gestured at Moblit, who quickly gave him a thick leather-bound notebook.

Erwin set the notebook on top of the desk, leafed through it and pushed it towards Kenny, who narrowed his glance.

"Very talented, huh?" the Ackerman leader grabbed the notebook and brought it to his nephew. "Take a look at that smile."

Levi took a glance at the drawing. He kept a neutral demeanor as he wondered how it was that these people could even get near that thing.

"Where did you hide it?" Levi asked, pushing the notebook aside.

"In my basement in Stohess," Hange said, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "It's less than two hours of horseback from here. Since we know that the young doctor Jaeger had interpersonal contact with Frieda Reiss, we consider it of vital importance that he helps us with the examination of the corpse. To be honest, we need him to do it as soon as possible."

"Yeah, Eren should go with you to take a look at it today," Kenny said, standing up. "The Pork King must have already heard about the theft in his expensive little house for the dead. I imagine him squealing like a deranged man after discovering that someone has intruded under his nose… once again," he grinned in satisfaction.

Levi looked at his uncle. He knew the old man had some sort of personal quarrel with Rod Reiss and that he surely would enjoy seeing him fall. However, sometimes Levi wondered if he accepted to cooperate with the cause of the Legion for less egoistic motives. In other words, he wondered if Kenny was not only participating because he was bored with the apparent order, but perhaps because he longed to sow chaos as well.

"We had already prepared some distractions," Erwin said. "Eren will be able to come and go, avoiding major inconveniences or suspicions."

Kenny lit his pipe up and savored it. "Levi will go with you," he said.

The four members of the Legion directed their glances towards Levi Ackerman.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

"Historia! Historia, come back here immediately!"

She ignored her father's orders as she hurried to get out of the Palace. Holding her dress up to avoid tripping, she ran until she got to the stable where her beautiful Siv waited for her. She opened the gate and got inside the cubicle. The hay crunched under her boots and the horse quietly came closer to her. After petting her on the snout, Historia took hold of her reins and quickly mounted her. The steed deployed all of its velocity as both of them got out of the wooden structure.

How was it that someone had thought of doing something like that? Historia understood the anger of the people against royalty. She also felt it despite being part of such a small and privileged group. She knew firsthand the injustices that the ones that had less went through, but she was conscious that everyone were human beings and that death, after all, was a destiny everybody shared equally. For that reason everyone should understand that you cannot play with death.

Since she met her, Frieda always was so sweet with her and the others. People had appreciated her for her simplicity and charming way of being while she lived. They respected her. Or at least they did so when she was alive, because now someone had decided it was time to desecrate her tomb and snatch her corpse. Perhaps they were thinking it would be a fantastic idea to show a protest against the monarchy, right? Which other reason could there be?

Assholes. There were better and more valid ways of protesting.

Historia's eyes were blurry and reddened from crying. The wind crashed against her face and swept her tears against her skin, drying them.

Bit by bit she started to pull the reins until Siv went from running to walking. She made the filly stop when they got to the entrance of the mausoleum, where a group of royal guards aligned in front of her to impede her pass.

"Princess, your majesty," said one of them. "In this moment, the police are doing the pertinent investigations at the place and-"

"Yeah, whatever. Let me guess: you're not going to let me in?" she asked as she avidly dried her tears with the back of her hand.

"We can't allow you to do so right now. We're sorry for the inconvenience, your majesty."

She glared at him.

"You could have not allowed the stealing of my sister's body, in first place," Historia pulled the reins and Siv stood on her hind legs. The filly let out a neigh and the guards protected themselves from the animal's front legs, scared of getting hit by them on the head.

The throne's heiress released the reins and the animal put all of her feet on the ground. Historia looked at the mausoleum for a moment. She scrutinized the guards one by one and softly kicked Siv's sides, urging her to get them out of there.

Historia nimbly got off the saddle once they got to a little pond surrounded by trees. She pet the lustrous filly's black neck while it drank water. Sometimes she wished Siv could talk and understand everything she told her.

She thought about Ymir. She always thought about her. She wished to see her and be with her, but she was aware of how damn difficult that was.

Historia leaned her head against Siv. She was so warm, so serene.

She thought about Eren and Armin. She wished to see them soon. There was so much to talk about…

She looked to her side and remembered Frieda putting her bare feet in the water, smiling.

She wished she could be near the people she loved, the people she trusted.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Levi couldn't find Eren anywhere around the underground area.

In the training room he only found the dirty and stinky shirt the messy brat had forgotten last night. In the mess-hall there was only Sasha and Connie, cleaning everything while looking disgruntled, though their faces turned into nervous grins once they saw Levi pass by. Volker and the others had gone to deal with some issues with Reeves, who needed to be offered a hand.

If Eren wasn't down there, then he had stayed upstairs. Levi would make him stand up through kicks in the ass if he found out that the brat had been lazing around or still sleeping in the bed.

As it always happened to him after coming from the dark basement, the sunlight that filtered through the net curtains that covered the windows blinded him for a few seconds. He expected to find Mikasa in the kitchen, but it was empty. The recently cleaned dishes were out drying. There was a pair of every cup and bowl, so the girl hadn't had breakfast alone.

Levi went up the staircase. Mikasa's bedroom door was open and there was no one inside, while Eren's bedroom door was slightly open. Levi could hear some mumbling coming from inside, so he silently got closer without peeking.

"You can touch it, if you want to," he heard Eren saying.

"Really?" and that one was Mikasa.

"Sure."

"…"

"Come on, Mikasa, didn't you want to check if my skin's texture was different here?"

Levi's eyes widened.

"Yes, b-but…"

"Give me your hand, it is fine. There. Touch, don't be shy about it."

Levi had heard enough. The muscles of his jaw got stiff and he gritted his teeth.

He kicked the door.

Eren and Mikasa let out surprised gasps. The two of them were sitting on the bed, super close to each other. Eren's shirt was unbuttoned until the middle of his torso. Mikasa had brought one hand to her mouth and had a red face. An  _extremely_  red face.

Levi narrowed his glance and clenched his hands.

"What the hell are you two doing?" he hissed.


	10. Lies

Eren gave a sidelong glance at Mikasa before trying to give an explanation.

"We were only…"

"No. Shut up." Levi gave a step back with a subtle grimace of disgust. "I prefer not to know."

Because of Mikasa's extremely red face and the state of his shirt, it didn't seem strange to Eren that Levi could have made up a completely wrong idea about what has been happening in the room. Anyone could imagine that they've been engaging in not-so-innocent activities.

"It's not what it seems." Eren whispered as he buttoned his shirt up. No one seemed to hear him.

"Eren, we'll make a trip to Stohess. We're leaving in fifteen minutes. Get ready. Bring your doctor's bag." Levi said.

That was unexpected.

While still sitting on his bed, Eren felt the weight beside him disappear.

"Wait, what are you doing in Stohess?" Mikasa asked as she stood up. "And why does it seem like I'll be staying here?"

He was wondering the same thing, but since she had gone ahead…

"It's none of your business." Levi blurted out.

"Of course it's my business. I must protect Eren." Mikasa said, pointing at him.

"I'll take care of that. You stay here, it's already decided."

Eren remained quiet as they argued. Mikasa had approached Levi and seemed pissed off.

"Why?" she continued. "Is it because of yesterday? I'm fine."

Yesterday?

"It's already decided." Levi repeated, intransigent, and then said something in such a low voice that Eren couldn't manage to hear it from his position.

"Whatever." Mikasa grumbled before leaving.

At the end of the staircase, Levi was waiting for him with his arms crossed and a sullen face. He made a gesture with his head and Eren followed him towards the door from where the short road to reach the lair started. He wondered if the Ackermans ever went out from that house through the front door, as normal people did.

He collided against Levi as he stopped suddenly, and Eren almost dropped his doctor's bag. The situation didn't give him the time or the urge to mumble an apology because, what was that for?

"You better be careful." Levi muttered.

"What?" Eren got annoyed. "But you're the one that stopped all of a sudden. I'm not clairvoyant."

"Tch." Levi resumed the step. "I'm talking about Mikasa."

Eren rubbed his arm and cursed under his breath. That dude was made of stone.

"To be careful? But she and I were just talking. It wasn't what it seemed to be, seriously. I was showing her a tattoo."

"Idiotic brat. You don't get a damn thing." Levi growled once they entered the lair's lugubrious corridor.

"I'm not a brat." Eren retorted, offended. He wasn't an idiot either, but he was feeling confused. "I don't know what I should realize about…" he admitted, halting.

Levi stopped before Kenny's office and, before turning the doorknob, he pierced Eren with a look.

"Seriously? Are you fucking blind or what?"

Eren opened his mouth and closed it again when he perceived that people were watching him. Of all the faces that were glancing at him, he only recognized Kenny and his science professor from University. He blinked.

"Professor?" He approached her, looking her over, as if to verify that she was not a product of his imagination. He took a quick glance at the rest of those present. This didn't make any sense. "Professor Hange, what… what are you doing here?" He questioned, moving his hands. The Ackermans and Hange Zoe together in the same place didn't make sense.

"I could ask you the same question, Eren." Hange offered him a warm smile as she gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Long time no see, did you get taller?"

"Huh? I have no idea." And who cared? What the fuck was she doing there, in the Ackerman's lair, with Kenny the Ripper?

Eren was surprised to find out that his amazing and loquacious science professor was part of the Legion. The men that were with her were also part of it. The leader of the Legion was there. Curiously, the rebel group was an ally of the Ackermans for reasons in which they had not yet gone into detail. After politely introducing himself, Erwin Smith had told him that the priority was to get to Stohess.

They didn't take the time to explain what was waiting for him in Stohess and, given that Levi told him to bring his doctor's bag, Eren thought he was on his way to take care of someone injured. Since Hange had knowledge in first aid, the fact that he traveled there would only make sense if it was more than one person injured or if someone was seriously injured or ill, which would exceed the level of medical knowledge of his teacher. However, he considered it would be strange for the Legion not to have a proper doctor. That is to say, if they counted among their ranks with the brilliant Hange Zoe, how could they not have a simple doctor?

Given that Kenny was involved, Eren began to suspect that it could be a rather murky affair.

"Last week I met Armin at the University," Hange said with all the naturalness of the world.

Eren was sitting beside her inside the carriage. Levi was seated in front of them and kept himself quiet with his arms crossed over his chest. The other two guys, Moblit and Mike, were driving the carriage, while Erwin galloped on his own horse at some distance in the rear.

"Really?" Eren smiled slightly when he heard the name of his best friend, even though he still felt stunned because of the events, "How's Armin doing?"

"Quite fine, as sweet as always. We talked about his job and a bit about you," Hange sighed, "It's a shame not having been able to meet the Ackerman girl today. I've heard wonders about her."

So she was aware of Mikasa's real identity. Eren wondered if everyone in the Legion knew that the girl he had seemingly run away with from the Reiss' party was an Ackerman, because even Connie and Sasha knew. He hoped that would not put her in danger.

"She had to stay home." Eren pointed out, refraining from mentioning her name in the midst of a sudden protective impulse.

"At  _home_ , huh?" amused, Hange glanced openly at Levi Ackerman. "I see you're quite comfortable with these people, Eren."

Levi, instead of returning the look to Hange, turned to Eren.

The young doctor gave him an insolent glance. He wasn't going to forget that he had called him an  _idiotic brat_  for no good reason. He was aware that Mikasa's cousin could give him a beating whenever he wanted. Hell, the guy could kill him in a heartbeat for sure, but Eren wasn't going to tolerate that…

Wait.

"Hey, Levi." He said, raising his chin. "What's your problem? What was that all about?"

"Oh, I seem to have missed something." Hange said, interested.

"We're not going to talk about the topic now." Levi discarded, completely ignoring Hange.

"Why not? It's still over an hour to get to Stohess to do I don't know which fucking super urgent and secret mission. No one wants to explain anything about it to me. I have no damn clue about what awaits me in that place," he complained, looking sideways at his professor, "Or maybe you, as a member of the Legion, will deign to tell me what the hell am I going to do in Stohess, exactly?"

Hange shook her head.

"I'm sorry but explaining it  _right now_  is not the most, uhm… convenient thing to do." She said with a little smile.

"You see, Levi? The Stohess thing remains a mystery," Eren said with his voice tinged with sarcasm and weariness, "So, since we're here: what better than to take advantage of this instance to clarify about things that give the impression of being much less murky. Because, seriously, I don't want my professor to keep trying to divert my attention with topics that are not relevant in this moment," he groaned, "Aside from the reason of this trip, I'm interested in talking about this other subject. You have enough time to shed light about why, out of the blue, I'm an idiotic and blind brat that doesn't realize anything, and what does all of this have to do with _her_?"

"I see…" whispered Hange.

"Huh?" Eren raised an eyebrow.

Levi snorted. "No one cares about her opinion, but it seems that even four-eyes has realized it."

"Quite so," she smiled.

"What?" Eren didn't understand anything.

"He's right, Eren. There are certain things which you seem to not realize, especially when they have something to do with girls." Hange explained and Eren looked at her as if she grew a second head. "But I want to make it clear that you're not a brat because of that, and I can testify that you are nobody's fool. It seems that the problem here is that Levi is jealous."

"What!?" Levi uncrossed his arms and widened his eyes.

The teacher adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose with a knowing air and a kind of sadistic smile. Eren has never seen her smiling like that.

"As far as I know, Mikasa is a pretty girl," Hange said, "Maybe Levi is jealous for a few reasons, for example-"

"Shut up." Levi interrupted her, threatening. "Don't talk about what you don't know shit about."

"Well. Maybe he's only acting as an overprotective older brother, or something like that." Hange whispered, pretending a sudden disinterest and boredom by the topic of conversation.

Eren turned to look through the window with an absent air, thinking about Hange's words and Levi's reaction.

It wasn't the first time someone brought up that he was not aware of things that involved girls. Armin and Historia had told him similar things in the past, more than once, but he never considered it important. He had other things to worry about, like his studies and his medical practice. He was always busy… and he tried to keep himself busy. Eren didn't have the time or the interest to relate with others beyond friendship or the strictly professional relationship. However, it wasn't as if the idea never crossed his mind. A few times he had found himself longing for an intimate physical contact, he was human after all – he was a man. It was impossible for him to be immune to the biological changes and physiological needs.

But his life had changed in an abrupt manner and he couldn't keep himself busy in the same way as before, or at least he couldn't use the same formula… Now a girl, Mikasa, was included in that formula. Eren had never spent so many hours a day or night with a girl before, besides his own mother. The exchanges with Historia were always reduced to house calls – of his father at the beginning, and then by his own visits as a doctor – or sporadic friendly visits that didn't last longer than four hours, where they occasionally also shared time with Armin. Besides, Historia didn't have the slightest romantic interest in men or someone else that wasn't Ymir, so falling for her meant to be condemned to an unrequited and impossible love. Frankly, he didn't think that was his thing.

_**You better be careful.** _

Maybe his teacher was right and Levi was behaving as a jealous and overprotective older brother, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten so annoyed, though he didn't have anything to worry about.

_**Seriously? Are you fucking blind or what?** _

If Levi meant that Eren wasn't capable of seeing Mikasa's attractiveness and everything else, then he was very wrong. Now, if he meant something else besides that… maybe Eren was actually fucking blind.

_**Idiotic brat. You don't get a damn thing.** _

Fine, he was probably damn blind and also a bit stupid.

'Mikasa is pretty, Levi is jealous and I'm a blind idiot that's not grabbing some important detail,' Eren concluded, dropping his face on the window of the carriage, feeling defeated. Shit. It seemed that Levi was right in everything except for the  _brat_  part.

"Eren, we're already here," Hange informed, shaking him carefully.

At some point during the trip he surrendered to sleep. And what a good thing it was that he did, because it may not be possible for him to sleep that night, or even the nights after.

When he entered his professor's house everything seemed in order, even normal in spite of the strange company, until Mike Zacharias sniffed at him as if he was a hound and smiled. Before Eren could even ask what the fuck was that for, Hange took him by the arm and guided him through some wooden steps that lead to an ample basement. The place smelt like different chemicals. It reminded him of the University's laboratory.

Mike and Moblit stayed upstairs. Erwin and Hange asked Levi for help to remove the cover of a clay container so big that… it seemed like a coffin.

Eren had a bad feeling. A chill ran down his spine and he got goosebumps. He didn't know if it was because of what could be inside there or because of what it could mean, or both things.

When he gave a couple of hesitant steps forward and saw what was inside, he understood why no one, not even Kenny, wanted to tell or explain to him anything previously. They made him bring his fucking doctor's bag for this, but it wasn't going to help much in this case.

"What's… the meaning of this?" he asked with his eyes fixed on the corpse. He remembered Kenny's voice making questions about Frieda days ago. "What have you done?"

"We took this corpse from the Royal mausoleum," Erwin explained incredibly chill, without the slightest bit of guilt. "The meaning and repercussions of what we discover today based on these remains are yet to be seen."

Eren looked at Erwin as if he was seeing him for the first time, and in a certain way it was like that.

Who was this guy?

Who gave him the right to do something like this?

"Why?" Eren questioned, approaching Erwin and grabbing him from the lapel of his jacket. He didn't care that he was a bit taller nor that he was in better shape than him. "Who the hell you think you are?"

The Legion's leader remained impassive, but the gaze he directed at Eren softened.

"I know you're upset and I'm very sorry." Erwin said. Eren didn't catch him making a gesture so that the others wouldn't interfere. "We've committed sacrilege, regardless of who this woman is. We didn't do it for pleasure, but in honor of the search for the truth."

"In honor of the search for the truth? What the fuck are you talking about?" Eren muttered, squeezing the cloth and pulling it with more strength. "What does Frieda have to do with this? Why Frieda?"

"Eren, stop asking stupid questions." Levi scolded him. "We don't have time for this. Use your damn head and think."

Eren turned to Levi, who was beside him, and Erwin took advantage of the distraction to release himself carefully and stretch his clothes.

Hange put a chair behind Eren and pushed him down so he could take a seat.

"You…" Eren muttered, running his fingers through his hair. He tried to contain his most visceral side. "What am I supposed to do for you? A fucking autopsy or what? I don't even have all the tools for it at hand. This is Frieda Reiss, right? I knew her. I know when and how she died. My father performed an autopsy on her and wrote the death certificate."

He wondered if Historia already knew about this and, if she did, he imagined how she must be feeling now.

His stomach churned.

The desecration of tombs was a common practice, especially among medical students, but Eren had always refused to take part in them. The mere fact of imagining someone stealing the corpse of his own mother to destroy it by making incisions, learning about anatomy, studying the tissues and bones, made him sick. He knew that in the end they turned everything into crap that they later threw away, without the slightest bit of respect.

His father had taught him about the alternative of practicing by donated bodies, something consented between the doctor and the dying patient or the family of the deceased.

He was used to seeing corpses.

"We need you to confirm that this is actually Frieda's body." Erwin said, and his voice sounded as if it came from far away. "Not only as a doctor, but as someone that…" his voice started trailing off.

He was used to seeing corpses, yes, but he hadn't been prepared for this.

Eren dried the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He didn't know when had he began to sweat, neither when had his hands began trembling.

Something inside of him told him that, if he did what they wanted him to do, he would reach a point of no return. At the far end… he always knew that there was something weird regarding Frieda's death. Very deep inside he had always felt that something wasn't right, and not only with the Reiss family.

He tried to ignore it constantly, actively, in spite of some nightmares that had repeated again and again, as if they wanted to tell or show him something. And there were also those other dreams… those that ended up happening even if it wasn't in an exact way. Those other dreams sometimes turned into nightmares.

Eren shook his head and exhaled. Hange offered him a glass of water and he drank it all in a long, bitter sip.

"Eren." Hange called him with kindness, bending down in front of him and grabbing him by the shoulders. "We have a portrait of the corpse. I think the best thing for now is that you take a look at it… until you feel like you can examine the corpse. We know you don't feel well at all, that you are upset and stunned, but Levi's right: we don't have much time and we need your help."

He slowly took his glance down to the notebook of yellowish pages that his professor put on his lap. Instead of seeing the portrait of a corpse, he saw the drawing of a giant monster with sharp teeth and ram's horns on his head. The giant was crouching in front of a girl who was offering him an apple in the middle of a leafy forest.

Historia had been leafing through the book with a childish smile until a servant informed her that her parent required her presence. Eren had never seen that book in the story tales and illustrations section of the Reiss' library, and he had already checked all those titles with Historia. He couldn't help it and took it, intrigued, but before he could even read the name someone snatched it from his hands.

Frieda made a reproving noise.

"I'll have to scold Historia for leaving this lying over there." She said as she put the book under her arm, as if she was trying to hide it from his sight. "And you, Eren: don't be nosy."

Eren clicked his tongue.

"Too much secrecy for an illustrated children's story." He groaned, feeling his cheeks warm. "I just wanted to take a look at it."

Frieda wore a simple but elegant white dress with lace details on the high collar and sleeves. She wore a silver chain from which hung a sapphire. On other occasions, Eren had seen her wear a simple gold chain with a small disc of the same material with the letter 'F' engraved.

She narrowed her big blue eyes, full of secrets, and tapped him on the head with the book.

"Too bad it's a tale not suitable for children under fourteen." Frieda said with a wry smile.

Eren flopped down on the couch where he had been reading the story of a hero who had to enter a labyrinth to kill a half human, half animal being.

When Historia returned, Eren had heard her happily mention to Frieda that she had finally found the story she had read to her when she was little.

"Well, seeing her like this, she does not look like her at all." Eren muttered, handing Hange the notebook back.

At least his hand didn't tremble anymore.

He stood up and stretched a little before approaching the clay container, doubtful. He scrutinized the black hair, dull and dry. The basins of the empty and shadowed eyes did not hide or reveal anything. There was no trace of her pale, perfect skin. The teeth were no longer hiding behind pink lips.

He took a deep breath.

"It's difficult to see the similarities between this and the memories one has of a person. At a glance, the bones are all the same. It's the flesh, the skin and the volume that make the difference. The colors. The blood running through the veins and capillaries. Life itself." Eren said as he drummed his fingers on the hardened clay and stopped his gaze on the teeth of the corpse. "Everything would be easier if there was still skin on the fingers and at the same time we had a record of Frieda's fingerprints, but as Rod  _strangely_  forgot to embalm her, we'll have to try to verify the identity of the corpse by observing what's left: the hair, the teeth, the bones and the stature."

"We already verified that it corresponds to a female corpse." Hange pointed out. "The height is approximately one meter sixty-eight centimeters. In the records we received, Frieda's adult height was one meter seventy-one."

Eren nodded.

"The length and hair color is the same as Frieda's. As for the denture," he said, struggling to visualize a detailed memory in his head, "I obviously don't remember exactly, but her teeth were very white, healthy, and her smile seemed perfect. Those of this corpse are somewhat crooked and in poor condition. Despite her mental disorder, Historia told me that the maids made sure that Frieda maintained an excellent hygiene, but I don't know if I could ensure that it was always like that… especially during her last months."

Hange urged him to continue with a gesture. She had removed her glasses.

One of the last times Eren saw Frieda alive, she barely spoke. In general, she would stare at an invisible point or clutch her head with both hands, as if she was suffering from a huge headache and her skull was about to explode. She rarely stirred and shouted. The few occasions when she spoke, she mainly said things that lacked of sense.

"The teeth!" Eren exclaimed out of a sudden. "I remember that she broke an incisor for doing this," he brought a hand to his mouth and bit it, without exerting pressure, imitating the movement. "She bit her hands. Sometimes she moaned and said 'it doesn't work, it doesn't work.'"

" _It doesn't work_?" Erwin repeated, wrinkling his forehead.

"What was it that didn't work?" Hange asked, expectant.

"How would I know? I didn't live in her head." Eren replied. "That time… that time she bit herself so hard that, besides breaking her tooth, she cut off the tip of one of her fingers."

Surprised at his own memory, Eren widened his eyes. He examined both corpse's hands. Its phalanges were intact. Not even one tip was missing.

"Shit." Eren whispered. The upper incisors weren't broke either. "This… This is not Frieda."

Hange jumped into place and shook Erwin by the shoulders. She screamed things that Eren couldn't hear clearly. It was as if his ears had been covered. He only felt his own heartbeats bouncing off his eardrums.

"Are you sure you got this body from her grave?" He asked after staying silent for a long time.

"Very sure. She had the plaque with her name engraved inside the mausoleum," said Hange. "Ah! The body carried this in between its fingers."

Eren received a gold chain. A simple and generic gold chain, without a pendant or anything that would point to Frieda as the previous owner of it... At this stage, nothing surprising.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

The knife hissed as it cut through the air and got stuck with a chirr in the center of the target.

"Not bad," Kenny praised her, smiling without dropping the cigarette he held between his lips, "My turn," he announced as he threw a knife that got stuck right next to the one Mikasa had already nailed.

Mikasa grabbed several knives and threw them one after the other with great dexterity and speed. Most of them hit precisely around the target, drawing a circle. She buried the penultimate knife in the middle of the forehead of Kenny's younger version of himself, on the poster glued to the wall, while the last one got very close to the Cuckoo clock. That last knife fell to the ground, for the point of it bounced after it met the stone.

"Oi, oi. If you hit the clock, I'll have to strangle you," her uncle said between his teeth, tangling her hair without delicacy. His hands were rough and his knotty fingers stank of tobacco, "What's your damn problem, girl? This is too dramatic for my taste."

She tilted her head to look him in the face. The old man was very tall.

"You and Levi," Mikasa replied. She snatched Kenny's cigarette and crushed it with the tip of her shoe as soon as it touched the floor. "I hate when you don't include me and don't explain to me what's going on. I thought we had already talked about this and reached an agreement."

Kenny walked to his desk. He extended his hand, grabbed a metal box and opened it with his thumb. After taking out a cigarette, he brought it to his mouth and lit it with a stern expression.

"Today's thing was unexpected and urgent. There was no time to explain shit," he said.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes. She tried to put each strand of hair back in its place as she watched Kenny remove the knife from his famous 'wanted' poster.

"Look what you've done," he reproached her. "This was the last poster I had left! Ugh. Look, you even wrecked the tip of this knife."

"Nah, you still have about thirty posters in the trunk where you used to hide the chocolates," Mikasa refuted. "Who's being dramatic now?"

"Sneaky lil shit, how long have you known about the fucking trunk? And I used to blame Traute..."

"Years ago. Sometimes we stuffed ourselves with chocolate together," she admitted, crossing her arms. Kenny had narrowed his eyes at the revelation of the complot and muttered something about how women shouldn't be trusted when there was sweet and expensive food in between... Huh? Was he serious? With him you never knew. "Anyway. Why did Eren have to go to Stohess?" Mikasa asked, channeling the conversation towards what she was interested in.

Kenny came closer to her and blew a short puff of smoke on her face. Mikasa coughed once, cursed under her breath and tried to snatch his cigarette, but he held her by the wrist and pinched her nose.

"Ha! I'll let you go only if you stop trying to steal my cigarette and destroying my things, you subversive brat." Kenny said. She groaned in response and he released her. "Fine. Eren went to see the corpse of Frieda Reiss," he finally answered with a smirk.

So, the guys from the Legion not only were crazy enough to offer themselves to enter the royal mausoleum and steal the body, but they had also succeeded. Wow.

"It's a speedy trip. Levi was the one who had to go with Eren this time," Kenny pointed out.

"What do you mean by that?" Mikasa asked. "That I'm not adequate enough or what?"

"You weren't fit for it this time." Her uncle let out another puff of smoke, this time away from her face, and looked at her with absolute seriousness. His blue eyes were so dark that in those moments they seemed black. "No matter how well you think you wear that I-don't-give-a-shit-about-anything mask, Mikasa, you don't fool me. Much less Levi. Do you understand? Unfortunately, we've known you since you were an annoying midget."

Mikasa looked away. She thought she knew where he was going with that.

"Levi will be able to help Eren to focus on the mission and not on feelings or whatever. He has experience handling emotional cases, ya know," he continued, recovering his usual nonchalant tone. "Anyway. You better comfort Eren when he returns, right?"

Mikasa didn't expect what he said at the end. If even someone like Kenny had noticed it, then she was doomed. Was she so obvious?

She left that place before her uncle could see the blush that stained her cheeks.

"Oi! Oi, it was a joke," Kenny said, chuckling.

She thought that maybe it would be a good idea to lock herself in her room all day, although if she did she could end up thinking about and imagining nothing but silly stuff.

She took a walk through the underground and received greetings and nods from the few people that were there at that time. After breakfast, most of them went to do whatever they had to do. Some performed as bodyguards for the merchants associated with the clan. Others mugged those who transported merchandise exclusive for noblemen and then smuggled the goods. One group applied the settling of scores. A small group, the less flashy ones, worked as spies and exchanged information with policemen like Annie, who worked for Kenny.

Mikasa heard laughter and screams in the mess-hall. When she leaned out she saw who might be Connie Springer and Sasha Braus running and jumping on the tables.

"Let's put that one over there a little further." Sasha suggested, jumping off.

"Okay, but only a bit." Connie said.

Each one stood at one end and pushed in the same direction at the count of three. They moved the table for about twenty centimeters and stopped.

"I'm going first!" Sasha ran and got back on the table from which she had gotten off.

The guys had placed two tables in a separate 'T' shape. They used the length of one to run and take momentum in order to jump and reach the other one. Sasha reached the other side without difficulty and Connie jumped after her, shortly after. They clasped the palms of their hands and continued jumping from table to table, laughing and sometimes emulating chimpanzee-like movements and sounds. They were very agile and fast.

Mikasa let out a small grin. If Levi was a witness of that mess and saw those two running, jumping and walking on the tables where everyone ate, he would be pissed off for sure.

The teens separated the tables even more, in order to increase the difficulty. Connie, who was shorter and had shorter legs, seemed somewhat reluctant. Maybe because of a matter of pride he decided not to say anything about it.

Although Sasha reached the other table after jumping, her heels were left out of the wooden surface. She helped herself with a flutter of her arms to not fall on her back and pushed herself forward.

Mikasa's gaze went to Connie, who took all the momentum he could and jumped. It was then when she quickly entered the mess-hall and caught him in a swift movement before he hit the edge of the table. Connie had his eyes wide open, cradled on her arms.

"You should be more careful." Mikasa reprimanded them, expressionless. Eren wasn't even here in case they got injured.

"It's Mikasa Ackerman!" Sasha screeched from behind.

Mikasa allowed Connie to put his feet on the ground before releasing him.

"You saved my life," he said, moved. He was as short as Levi.

"Don't exaggerate."

She helped them to put all the tables in their place. Each time she pushed one, they watched her in amazement. It seemed strange to her that they were so surprised at her strength, because it wasn't that much considering that she had dedicated herself to train with people bigger than her since she was ten years old. Also, she was still a bit far from reaching Levi and Kenny in terms of power. She didn't know if it was because she still lacked practice and experience or if it was because she was a girl.

Mikasa suggested that they clean the tables and the mess-hall in order to prevent a punishment from Levi, because she had no doubt that he'd check each surface and would be able to find even a measly trace of shoe in the wood.

"Yes, ma'am!" Connie and Sasha had said in unison, holding a hand to their chests.

Sasha had put her fist on the left side and Connie on the right. Soon the boy received a nudge from his partner and immediately changed hands.

Levi had told her that they were insufferable brats, but Mikasa didn't think so, they were just nice and rowdy people. Eren had told her they appeared to be good guys, and he must be right.

She said goodbye to the Legion's guys and started her way towards her room.

Mikasa hoped that the trip to Stohess wouldn't have affected Eren way too much. She was aware that he had met Frieda, so facing the drama surrounding the alleged corpse might be quite hard for him. Finding out, after years, that they had lied to him in the face about something like that must be a shitty thing to go through... That was if Kenny was right, because he had always suspected that Frieda's death was a sham.

Levi and Eren returned shortly after it had darkened. While Levi stayed in the lair updating Kenny about everything, Eren went upstairs and seemed to have no desire to talk, because Mikasa heard him take a few heavy steps in the corridor and then lock himself in his room.

Despite her concern for him, she thought that the best thing to do was to give him space to put his thoughts and emotions in order, if that was possible. But at the same time she needed to know how he felt and give him a hand, so that he would know that he could count on her.

Since the only thing that Eren should want was to be alone, Mikasa tried to get distracted with anything else. She began to sort her desk. Stretched her bed. She folded the clothes and organized them by colors, and did the same with the dresses that hung on the side. She turned all her socks into balls, or almost all of them, because there was one that lacked its pair. She took the dust off the books and straightened them. She did a few push-ups and sit-ups and laid on the floor, staring at the ceiling. She even thought about challenging Levi for a hand-to-hand combat session, even though the last time she had inadvertently given him a horrible knee hit in the crotch and Levi had chosen not to talk to her all day after calling her a  _damn cheater_.

Maybe she should give up and prepare herself to sleep, no matter if it was still early for that.

Mikasa had been in bed for a while when someone knocked on the door. It was Levi for sure. That morning, after not allowing her to go to Stohess, he had told her that they would have a talk when he returned and blah, blah. She wasn't in the mood for Levi to preach to her for having found her in Eren's room, if that was what the talk was going to be about.

"What?" She said, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

"Hi Mikasa, are you busy?" Eren asked from the other side of the door.

Her heart bounced.

"No, come in." She answered, not knowing if she should stay hidden between the sheets or stand up or what.

She chose to at least uncover her face, because she had stupidly covered it at some point.

"Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No." Mikasa said, sitting up.

Eren sat on the edge of the bed next to her and gave her a fleeting half smile. He was paler than usual and his hair was disheveled. His shirt was very wrinkled, the same shirt that he had unbuttoned in the morning to show her what he had tattooed on his left pectoral: a black snake that took a circular shape and bit its own tail. Mikasa hadn't come to learn much about it except for that he got the tattoo after he turned sixteen. Her concentration went down the gutter the very moment Eren had taken her hand and had pressed it against the warm skin of his torso, all thanks to her asking a stupid question about textures shortly before. It wasn't even the first time Mikasa saw or touched a tattoo. She felt as if she had taken advantage of the situation.

"Someone reminded me that Armin's birthday is next week. The third of November," Eren began to say. "I know that Kenny will make you go with me anyway, but would you like to go with me to Shiganshina to celebrate my friend?"

Mikasa blinked. She did not expect a birthday invitation.

"Uhm, yes... I would like to."

"Nice." He said, looking at his hands.

"Eren..." She called him softly. "Are you okay?"

He shrugged.

"It was a strange day." He murmured slowly while dragging the palms of his hands through his thighs until he reached his knees, where he supported them. He leaned forward, keeping his arms straight and firm. "The only certainty I have is that I should pretend that nothing has happened. That I still haven't heard any of the lies of the Reiss family." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "You... did you know about Frieda's corpse?"

"Something like that... Kenny always considered that Frieda's  _death_  had been suspicious." Mikasa said. "But I had no idea that the Legion had managed to snatch the body. I didn't know that today they would take you to Stohess for you to see it."

"Yeah, I remember the discussion you had with Levi this morning." Eren smiled faintly. "I guess I'm not the only one who's having things hid from them."

He looked exhausted. He must have been overwhelmed and hurt.

"Sometimes it has to be like that." Mikasa's voice was almost a whisper. She didn't know how to comfort others and she was not even sure what was she saying. "Knowing too much can become a burden."

"That's how it must have been for my father..." Eren said, suddenly somber. "For that matter, knowing too much can be dangerous."

Mikasa felt a lump in her throat thinking about the fate of Grisha Jaeger and the guesses that Eren must have already taken.

Hesitant, she put a hand on Eren's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "I'm so sorry."

He gave a small nod.

"It's okay. At least now I understand the reason why I'm here, with you. My father's decision finally makes sense," Eren said, turning his body towards her. "After everything we experienced together in Trost, the only thing that made sense to me was that my father asked me to trust you."

"Oh..." was all that Mikasa could say. She never thought that the letter that Dr. Jaeger had left for his son said anything about her. Well, in case Eren was referring to that.

"I trust you, Mikasa." Eren affirmed, gazing at her intensely. "You can also trust me, if you feel that way."

She had always considered him a reliable person. Acknowledging that he trusted her was like a compliment to her and she was enormously grateful to have made progress up to this point.

"Hey, this may sound a bit... weird," Eren said, leaning slightly towards her as if he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was going to say. Like it was a secret that belonged only to the two of them. "But I think... I  _feel_  that we were destined to know each other and be friends despite everything."

Mikasa couldn't contain herself and, for the first time in a long time, she broadly grinned.

"Yes, me too." She confessed, very delighted.

Eren seemed surprised at her expression and response, but soon returned the smile. They exchanged smiles for a short time before Mikasa got inhibited and looked away.

Eren let out a sigh.

"I don't know if I can sleep after what I found out today." He grumbled while scratching the back of his neck. "Or if I manage to fall asleep, I'm sure I'll have nightmares."

"Why don't you take something to help you sleep?" Mikasa suggested, although he should already know that for being a doctor. "When I... when I have problems I drink passiflora and it relaxes me to the point that I fall asleep. Do you want me to make you some tea?"

"Oh, no. Don't worry." Eren shook his head gently. "Actually I was thinking about asking you for another kind of favor."

"What other kind of favor?"

Eren cleared his throat lightly.

"Can I sleep with you tonight? I'm sure it will help me feel better."

Mikasa's lips parted. Her cheeks colored as she recalled the tour of Eren's absorbed gaze, which went from her head to her breasts, where he fixed his eyes for a while as they had breakfast that morning. When some men scrutinized her shamelessly, Mikasa felt so disgusted that she wanted to prick their eyes and break their necks, but with Eren it had been different. Of course, at first his insistent gaze had made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, but she never felt offended because of it. After a few moments a kind of yearning arose in her and she wondered if he...

Well, she wondered a few stupid things that came back to her after hearing Eren say what he had just said. Mikasa suspected that at any moment she would pass out or something, because she felt as if all the blood in her body had moved to her face.

_I'm sure it will help me feel better._

Despite her inexperience with this sort of thing, Mikasa thought she knew what Eren meant by that. The woman who had taught her all about the use of female ruses had been a refined prostitute who obviously knew a lot about men as well.

"No, wait. Shit. I don't mean to sleep in  _that_ way." Eren said hastily, holding a hand to his forehead. "Do you remember what I told you while we were still in Trost? That I realized that I sleep better when I know I'm not alone? I was thinking about bringing my mattress to your room and sleeping here, with you... I'm not asking you to sleep in the same bed."

Oh.

Of course.

How could she even think about that kind of thing? Now she was embarrassed to have believed that Eren would even think about her in that kind of way. What a fool. The only thing Eren wanted was to try to have a night free of nightmares, get to sleep and rest after a long and complicated day.

"Mikasa?" Eren called her. "Huh... Does this silence mean no?"

She did everything possible to recover her composure and the dignity that characterized the Ackermans. She avoided contact with Eren's eyes, just in case.

"You can sleep here." She answered in a neutral voice and pushed the covers aside to get out of bed. "I'll help you bring the mattress."

"Are you angry?" Eren asked as he followed her with uncertainty. "If it bothers you, it's not necessary for you to do this favor, seriously."

"No, it's fine."

Together they took Eren's mattress to Mikasa's room and put it on the floor, taking care so that the sheets and covers didn't get too messy. They left a space between the mattress and the bed so she could get off her bed without the risk of stepping on Eren.

After turning off the lamp, Eren asked her again if it really didn't bother her that he was going to spend the night there. Mikasa assured him that there was no problem, however he did not seem very convinced about her response and gave the impression that he wanted to say or ask something else.

"Good night," was the last thing Eren said that night, interrupting a long silence.

"Good night." Mikasa repeated in a whisper, hidden under her sheets.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Light blue peeling walls. Worn handrails and steps. Dust motes dancing against backlight as the sun hid behind the mountains.

Clumsy, slow, dragged steps. Wheelchairs squeaks. Erratic movements. Things falling to the ground.

Murmurs, sudden screams and muffled cries.

Bovine gazes. Nervous looks.

Anyone would hate to work in a place like this, but she remained undaunted. It was a kind of repetitive and incessant nightmare that she already knew how to control, thanks to which she had learned that monsters were nothing else but people who had lost themselves.

Ymir felt an enormous compassion for those human vestiges, all rejected and many of them abandoned by their families.

She checked her patients list. The next was Alina Todenhöfer, from room thirteen. A few days ago they had had to cut her hair because it had gone beyond her earlobes. It was part of the contract her hermetic family had signed. Poor Alina bawled her eyes out as she watched her short black curls spill around her on the floor.

"How dare you do this to me again?" Alina asked once she got tired of sobbing, in the middle of one of her rare moments of lucidity. "I can't stand having my hair so short. I look like a kid."

Ymir glanced at her intently, intrigued.

Alina had straightened her back, stretched her neck and crossed her legs with an elegance worthy of a lady of high birth. The huge and lively eyes returned Ymir a gaze that made her so familiar that it gave her chills. It was a matter of seconds. Soon the indigo eyes dimmed and fell behind the constant veil of madness that consumed her.

The strange familiarity vanished, the elegant posture crumbled and only the usual gaunt woman remained.

After they finished cutting her hair, Ymir had helped Alina to get up and had her sitting by the window, where she could sit for hours in absolute silence and stare at nothing - except for the few days in which she insisted on self-harm with nothing more and nothing less than her own teeth.

Today seemed to be one of those days. Her latest injuries had not even finished healing.

Ymir closed the door of room thirteen behind her.

"It doesn't work." Alina murmured with an empty expression, sitting in her favorite chair. "It doesn't work..."

Ymir sighed and approached the patient. Her hair had been cut so much that her pale scalp was visible. At least they had not shaved her head.

"Yes, Alina. We already know that it doesn't work." She said, tired. She didn't even try to ask her what wasn't working because the woman never answered. "If you are so intent on turning your cute hands into two balls of ground beef, I recommend asking for help at a butcher shop. Or maybe in the kitchen, which is closer. It's a matter of putting your hands on the floor and asking someone to hit them with a mace."

Alina slowly moved her hand wrapped in gauze away from her mouth.

"Good, stop it so I won't have to tie you to the stretcher or roll you in a straitjacket." Ymir encouraged her, tapping her on the back. Alina tilted her head slightly in her direction.

Despite not making eye contact, Alina Todenhöfer seemed to have paid attention and understood everything she had said to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we finally reached the last published chapter, quoting my author notes from when I updated this one in FFnet: "There were moments where I suffered while writing this chapter because the words didn't came "out" the way I wanted them to, so you have no idea how glad I am for finally getting it finished. I feel sort of satisfied with the result. This is the longer chapter I've written until now for this fic and it equals to a two at the price of one offer (?)."
> 
> Thank you so much for all the kudos and to Chompyboigalliard for leaving a comment in chapter 9 ❤ I'm especially grateful towards Heidi for helping me out with the proof-read of most of these chapters. You're awesome, Hoedi!
> 
> If you liked any part in particular, you have constructive criticism to give or you simply feel like giving your general impressions about the chapter and show your support, remember you can do it by writing a review in the text box down here. I spend hundreds of hours of my life writing this – I spent at least 50 only writing this chapter xD – and it will just take you like two minutes or less to leave a message that will contribute to my motivation ;) and even less than a second to give some kudos here in AO3~


	11. Survivors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A TRILLION THANKS to Heidi (erensjaegerbombs) for helping me out with the Engrish language once again ❤ She's best hoe!

 The waning moon shone in the night sky like a shy smile that sometimes hid behind the clouds.

Dressed in black from head to toe, Mikasa reinforced the knot of cloth that covered her face. Only her eyes and her hair tied in a high bun were visible. Beside her, Levi glanced at his pocket watch. After hearing the galloping of some horses, he took stealthy steps toward the edge of the roof over which they had been waiting for more than half an hour, camouflaged in the darkness. The first wagon was a short distance from them.

Mikasa crouched down next to the stalking figure who wore the same attire as her. She squinted at the sight of an old woman who started crossing the cobbled street, leaning heavily on her walking stick. Her fragile and stooped figure was visible thanks to the light radiated by the lanterns at the entrance of some surrounding homes. The old woman was in the middle of the street when the wagon appeared on the road. As they expected, the coachman reacted and pulled the reins of the horses to slow down, trying to dodge her.

With his striking red hair hidden under a black woolen cap, Volker had already quickly approached the wagon and jumped on it. The coachman screamed and fell to the ground with a kick, while the burly Luther leaned out from a corner and hit the fallen man in the back of the head, pushing him out of the way.

From above, Mikasa and Levi witnessed how Volker took the first order. The second order, larger in size, didn’t take long to go through the same route.

Levi jumped from a height of two floors and landed like a hungry panther on the men who handled the reins of the horses, cutting off their surprised moans with some swipes.

Mikasa followed him less than two seconds later. She landed on the roof of the car as a second feline shadow and went to the back where she could see the bundle of legs and arms lying on the cobblestones, bright by the light drizzle. They left the two coachmen behind so Luther could take care of them while the vehicle continued moving.

Crouched, Mikasa supported herself on one knee and the palms of her hands on the humid wood, continuing to watch the rear. A few irregular bumps that vibrated under her forced her to shift focus. To her bewilderment, she managed to perceive movements that weren’t related to the normal motion of a wagon. She even believed she heard muffled groans from the inside where these merchants were supposed to be transporting salted meat, ham, sausages, and other high-quality cold meat intended only for the tables of some noble families of Mitras.

When Levi stopped the horses in an alley, Mikasa jumped down and began to eagerly remove the heavy locks from the cargo doors, except for one that carried a large padlock. She tried to break it by pulling it several times with all her strength, but it did not yield. When she heard noise from inside again, she leaned her ear against the wood and discerned sobs that sounded too human. Too feminine.

Mikasa gasped, opening her eyes wide, and looked for Levi in the darkness of the place where they were waiting for Volker's signal to continue advancing.

“Levi, please come here,” she pleaded in an anguished whisper. “Quick!”

He approached immediately, watching her face in the dim light of the moon.

“What happened?” He asked in a low voice.

“I think... I think that...” Mikasa began to say, wishing she was wrong while her stomach shrunk and her brow furrowed. She nibbled on her lower lip shortly before deciding to reveal her suspicions in a trembling voice. "It seems there are… people inside.”

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

The first time Mikasa, only five years old, included him in one of her deformed and stained children's drawings done with a charcoal stick, Levi wasn’t able to feel touched by it.

She had drawn some figures that, Levi supposed, were her parents: one had long hair and wore a dress, while the other wore a... stick or a rifle and a hat? Then there was her, the brat who was a copy of half the size of the figure that should be Miyuki. The _thing_ that was supposed to be Levi, on the other hand, looked like a horrid grumpy goblin much smaller than Mikasa.

It had to be said that at least the brat had made an effort to make everyone look like they were holding hands. Everyone smiled in the drawing, except for the goblin, whose lips were no more than a straight line.

Mikasa, who looked like she was fresh out of a coal mine where she had to do forced labor, had been clearly impatient to hear his opinion about what was far from being a children's masterpiece.

“What's that thing supposed to be?” Levi dared to ask, knowing he was tempting his luck.

“It's not a thing,” she corrected him, describing a circle around the character in question with her little finger, passing over the black lines and staining everything gray. “This is you, Levi. And look, we're all holding hands!” she said in an excited squeal.

“Yeah, very... uh, nice...” he conceded, not very convinced.

His lack of emotion was quickly perceived by Mikasa, who looked at him for a moment and then glanced down at her work again, as if trying to find what could be wrong.

“You don’t like it?” she asked, frowning and pouting. “If you don’t like it then I won’t draw you ever again,” she said, snatching the sheet of paper from him and gripping the charcoal stick.

Realizing her intentions, Levi covered the drawing with one hand.

“The only thing I don’t like is that you made me so short, when you are way shorter than me, brat.”

“But I am a little girl,” Mikasa explained, carelessly dragging the charcoal over Levi's hand and drawing several black circles that turned into a flower. “Dad says you’ll not grow anymore and I can grow a lot. I’ll be taller than you. As tall as dad or as Uncle Kenny,” she affirmed without a hint of malice and very concentrated in her task.

Wow, the brats' frankness could be cruel.

And so that’s the shit Kaspar was spreading. What a traitor. You couldn’t really trust the Ackerman side of this family.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Levi removed the hand so the girl didn’t continue drawing all over him. “Tch. You don’t even know Kenny.”

“ _Tch_. Dad says Uncle Kenny is the tallest of all and that he's as skinny as a noodle, but a very weird one, with a beard and a hat,” Mikasa said with an adorable smile.

Levi couldn’t help it but get a bit infected with that smile. It was a good thing the attention span of children this age was brief and Mikasa already seemed to have forgotten her annoyance.

“A noodle addicted to tobacco.”

“What is ‘tobacco’?”

She had no idea what the word ‘addict’ meant either, for sure.

“Nasty shit that adults like that smells like burnt ass.”

“’Shit’…” Mikasa repeated in a confused tone. Levi could bet her parents had only taught her the word _poop_ for practical reasons, “and why do adults like nasty shit?”

“Because they’re assholes.”

Mikasa blinked and Levi knew Kaspar and Miyuki would later scold him for teaching their innocent little girl swear words. However, he’d never thought the girl would come up with the great idea of asking her mother if she also liked the "nasty shit" in addition to asking her to describe the smell of "burnt ass" and an explanation about what meant to be an "asshole". Thanks to that, Levi got himself a good tug on his ear at the age of nineteen and, as punishment, had to allow a super excited Mikasa to sketch his whole fucking face under the excuse of drawing Kenny's beard, guided by the harpy of her mother. Of course, in the end everyone cracked up thanks to his ridiculous appearance and his sulky expression. Kas had even choked and cried from laughing so hard. At that time Levi had barely managed to stifle his own laughter.

It was one of those anecdotes that could have cheered up even a bitter man like him if only things hadn’t changed so much less than three years after that, just when the Ackerman family had been so close to growing again.

Laughter and joy from the precious memory were soon replaced by the bloody images Levi would rather forget.

The tears and last words of a self-sacrificing mother, surrounded by blood both foreign and her own.

The shattered and unrecognizable face of a father who had once owned the kindest smile and personality.

The brutal conscience that some wretches had just snatched everything from a little girl, except for the pain she would have to deal with for the rest of her life.

The candid gleam of Mikasa's eyes had gone out while she was still breathing. She continued to live only by reflex. Once Levi managed to get that frail, shattered existence to the hideout in Orvud, the insipid doctor at Kenny's service had examined her and had reported with indifference that she was "just in shock.”

The shock lasted almost a full week. Mikasa didn’t talk, didn’t react and didn’t move. She barely blinked. Her gaze remained fixed on an invisible point and her eyes were so opaque they looked like the eyes of a dead person. She surrendered to sleep only because at one point she was unable to stay awake, or because the doctor gave her a poppies’ infusion.

As the days passed, the doctor conceded he didn’t have enough knowledge in psychiatry and recommended that Mikasa should be admitted to a sanatorium in case she continued to be unresponsive. Levi immediately refused to take that alternative while Kenny only responded with an ambiguous "we'll see."

Levi had made sure Mikasa drank water and ate by force, while Traute had been entrusted with the task of taking her to the toilet a couple of times a day and bathing her on the sixth day, which was when Mikasa finally cried. She cried and screamed until she fainted in the bathtub.

Traute's chin trembled slightly when she told Levi he could now enter the room where the eight-year-old girl was sleeping with her eyelids swollen and red.

“I dried her. I dressed her. Her hair is still a bit damp...” Traute had said at that time, her eyes shining with the tears she resisted to spill while running her fingers through her blond curls. “I need a moment.”

Levi understood her. Mikasa's weeping and screaming had also made him nervous and, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time it would happen. Sometimes it would be heartbreaking cries, others would be expressions of anger. Both uncontrollable and frustrating situations.

For a while they had had to put all their weapons, particularly the daggers, under lock and key, for on more than one occasion Levi had almost been stabbed by a fierce and unrecognizable Mikasa right after entering her room. When the poor girl was destabilized she became an emotional disaster. She bit, struggled, fought, kicked, screamed and cried whenever Levi tried to restrain her and make her see reason. That unpleasant situation became something recurrent for months and its frequency only diminished after Kenny suggested that maybe the best thing would be to allow the brat to hang around more freely, because no one liked being locked in the same place day and night.

“If we can’t contain the little monster, there is no choice but to let it go before it gets worse,” Kenny had said shortly after. “She would have to be taught one or two things, of course. To train her in the art of properly directed violence...” He smiled with satisfaction before adding: “To empower her.”

Empowering Mikasa had been key, but it had not managed to eliminate the root problem. It was expected, of course, because no one could overcome such a traumatic event like the one she had experienced only by learning to fight, to defend oneself and to kill if necessary. However, there wasn’t much more that he and Kenny could do.

Levi watched a grown-up Mikasa, who was pacing back and forth like a caged lion, her tense gaze went from the girls to the coachmen. She wielded and released her hands while Volker and Luther searched for information in the merchants' delivery lists under the light of the only lamp inside that cold clandestine warehouse.

“It gives the impression that these names and addresses are false,” Volker noted, “or mixed. There’s no street with this name in Mitras, but there’s one in Utopia, and none of the nobles in the area is named Fischer, unless one of the Fischers on the pier has climbed socially in record time.”

Levi nodded.

The three drivers who had been assaulted were tied up, gagged and blindfolded, while the four girls of different ages who they had pulled out of the second wagon remained blindfolded, hugging each other.

It had been an unpleasant surprise to find victims of human trafficking that night, particularly for Mikasa, who had run out of words at the sight of them and had been so overwhelmed in such a short span of time that she hadn’t been able to do anything but vomit.

While Mikasa recovered, Levi and the others had moved the girls into the warehouse. After releasing them from their moorings and gags, they were offered water and something to eat. Levi told them that no one would hurt them and asked them to stay calm and silent. He also ordered them not to remove the fabric that covered their eyes at any time.

One of the girls, who must have been the age of his cousin, stirred in her place and cleared her throat.

“If you’re not going to hurt us... If you’re helping us... Why don’t you let us see you?” she questioned, tightly hugging the youngest victim, a little girl under eight who breathed through her open mouth. “You were stealing the goods, right? Did you know that we were in there...? Are you... traffickers too? Criminals?”

Levi opened his mouth to answer, but Mikasa interrupted him and the girl who had dared to speak gasped in surprise at hearing her female voice.

“Yes, we were stealing and yes, we are criminals,” Mikasa said between her teeth, “but not of the same kind as these fuckers.” She approached one of the coachmen and kicked him so hard in the stomach that the guy rose a few inches off the ground, moaning in pain. “We have nothing to do with this scum.”

With a brief whistle, Levi caught the attention of Volker and Luther who were watching Mikasa, surprised at her outburst.

“Take the drivers to the back and question them,” he ordered in a low voice as soon as they both came to him.

Before Mikasa went after them, Levi grabbed her firmly by one arm and in a whisper asked her - no, he _ordered_ _her -_ to come with him. He pulled her until they were  as far as they could get from the other girls.

“I know this is a complicated situation for you, but I need you to please try to keep a cool head,” he murmured.

“That's a lot to ask,” she snapped, trying to break free from his grip with brusqueness. Her eyes were half-closed with rage and her body tense. “Let me go. I want to kill them. I need to kill them.”

“Do you realize what you're saying?” Levi asked, increasing the pressure on her arm. “You're not thinking clearly. If we kill them before questioning them, we won’t get anything.”

“Perfect,” Mikasa granted. “You question them and then I kill them. Those damned depraved ones are good for nothing else but to ruin the lives of others.”

“You won’t kill anyone today, Mikasa.”

“That doesn’t depend on you!”

“Of course it does. I’m the one in charge,” Levi said, remarking his words.

Mikasa pierced him with her eyes.

“You always end up saying the same shit...” she snarled, irritated.

“This is how things work. Our things. If you don’t like it, go talk to Kenny and suggest changes," he hissed, letting go of her arm.

“You're not understanding!” Mikasa protested, shaking her head and giving him a look full of disappointment and reproach. “How...? How can you not understand it when you know better than anyone what I had to go through?” She took a hand to her chest, where she seemed to have lodged much of her pain.

Levi held her gaze, unperturbed by the helplessness and grief he himself was feeling.

Of course he knew it, although he would never know it as well as she did.

“You’re the one who’s not getting it,” he corrected her with some harshness. “We’re in the middle of a mission, a job, and we can’t make it a personal matter. Our own shit should not influence these cases, much less when there’s a hierarchy to respect and a team involved. We have no alternative but to focus on completing the task in the shortest time possible... You should have already learned that. I taught it to you a long time ago.”

She looked away and pursed her lips. She seemed to maintain a relentless internal struggle for a long time.

Levi watched as Mikasa's shoulders slumped and her back slowly hunched, yielding under an invisible weight.

Mikasa shrinked and her face contracted, as if she was about to start crying.

“I need to do something, Levi. I feel so much... so much impotence and... anger... and...” Mikasa turned to the girls who they had rescued and hugged herself. “I can’t stand it. If you don’t let me kill at least one of those bastards, I won’t be able to hold back the damn tears for another second... I feel like... I feel like I'm going to collapse!” she admitted with glazed eyes and a trembling voice.

Levi clenched his jaw and laid a hand on Mikasa's shoulder.

“Thanks to you, to us, those girls won’t have to keep suffering at the hands of disgusting slaver swines,” Levi began to say, struggling to find the right words. “So, today you’ve done and will do something more useful than getting your hands dirty with rotten blood...” he squeezed Mikasa's shoulder. “Hey. Listen to me well, brat, I have two orders for you: first, I forbid you to even touch a hair of those filthy motherfuckers.”

“But-”

“Second, I order you to take care of the victims until we finish the interrogation and take them with Reiner. I think they’ll definitely feel safer talking to another girl, even if they can’t see her.”

It was that or send her back home. If he sent her back to Orvud, Mikasa would feel humiliated and would think she had failed, and Levi didn’t want that kind of idea to stay in the mind of such a self-demanding person like her.

At first, this shitty situation gave the impression of only being a cruel trick of fate, but it was more than that. While Mikasa was currently focusing only on the negative side of the matter, Levi hoped that soon she would expand her vision and learn a thing or two out of this experience, one of those things that neither he nor Kenny could teach her.

Violence couldn’t be the only form of empowerment.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Levi hadn’t given her the time to say or to oppose to anything. He’d only walked away and disappeared through the door behind which Volker and Luther were coaxing information from the bastards, against whom she couldn’t even retaliate. And it was unfair, so unfair...

Mikasa had to fight with all her might against the impulse to disobey Levi, to run after him and sneak into the room to kick the shit out of the coachmen.

Her body was so tense it vibrated. Her teeth squeaked because of how clenched they were.

Her misty eyes wandered through the dark, wide warehouse. Surrounding the area, there were wooden boxes and burlap sacks stacked on top of one another, arranged in an orderly way, while in the middle there was some free space. That little free space felt dense and oppressive, as if the oxygen was solidifying.

The four girls she had discovered inside one of the wagons were sitting near the only illuminated corner. Her mind fell back to the moment when Levi and the others had pulled them out, one by one, and her stomach turned again, though she had nothing to expel anymore.

Instead of advancing, Mikasa took two steps back and her back hit a huge wooden box. It was then when she realized she had stopped breathing. She curled and released her hands again and again as she breathed air in and out of her cramped lungs. A sharp pain pierced her chest. She could feel the rapid beating of her heart in her ears and her head muddled.

How did Levi expect her not to turn all of this into something personal, when all she could do was to see herself in each one of those girls?

To make things worse, one of the poor girls was so small she must have been the same age as Mikasa when the world had gone to hell for her.

She saw blood again. She heard ghost shots and a wave of panic swept over her.

Her sight got completely clouded and she had to cover her mouth with her hands to stifle a sob.

_No. no._

_Stop._

She shook her head, trying with all her strength to ward off the terrible memories that harbored in her mind. This wasn’t the right time.

**_I need you to please try to keep a cool head_ **

Levi was right. He was absolutely right. If she allowed her emotions to take hold of her, she would end up a mess and wouldn’t be able to do anything useful. She wouldn’t even be able to finish the job because one of those damned crippling breakdowns would come to her and spoil everything.

She had to stay under control. Not to give in to fear. Not to allow her emotions to disarm her completely.

“Breathe,” she whispered to herself. “Breathe...”

Little by little, the atmosphere began to feel less heavy and Mikasa managed to slowly recover her composure.

Taking a deep breath, she wiped the tears that had slipped through her cheeks with her forearm. She clasped her hands, straightened her back and walked at a determined pace toward the girls. As soon as she was less than a meter away from them, she sat cross-legged on the floor and stared at the sole of her black boots.

She cleared her throat lightly and the two older girls winced since they hadn’t seen her coming because their eyes were covered. Neither had they been able to hear her footsteps. Mikasa was used to walking with such stealth that when she moved, she didn’t make any noise.

“I'm so sorry,” Mikasa said all of a sudden, and her own voice sounded strange to her. She made an uncomfortable grimace, lifted her knees and hugged her legs, pressing them against her rumbling chest. She wasn’t afraid anymore, although she did feel a little anxious. “I hate that... you had to go through all of this. I promise you that you’re at least safe now.”

The eldest of the group seemed to extend an arm in order to touch Mikasa, but she retracted it instead and placed it on her lap where the smaller girl dozed with her long blonde hair scattered in all directions.

“Are you really with them?” The girl asked, her voice tinged with concern. “How old are you?”

“Yes, I am with the men who took you out of the wagon,” Mikasa said. Her hands had begun to sweat. She wasn’t sure about what she was doing, but she also didn’t know what else to do other than that she couldn’t play her apathetic role. “I'm eighteen.”

“Oh, you're younger than me... I'm twenty years old.” The girl brought a hand to the cloth that covered her eyes and, just like when she had tried to touch Mikasa, she regretted it halfway and resisted the impulse to take the blindfold out. She slipped her hand through her coppery hair and cursed under her breath. "I know I can’t get rid of this crap, so here I am, trying to imagine you and to believe that you really are eighteen and not fifteen years old. What's your name?”

“M.”

The young woman giggled.

“Only ‘M’? ‘M’ for _Mysterious_ , of course,” she said, sarcastic, and one of the group's blonde girls laughed, only to cover her mouth as if she had just made a huge mistake. “The one that thought your name was funny is Heike and she’s fourteen years old. The little one that sleeps on my legs is Vivianne and she’s seven years old. The other little girl, who apparently is also sleeping somewhere, is Elsa, ten years old.”

“I'm awake,” Elsa whispered, nervously fiddling with the tips of her dark hair while leaning on one of the burlap sacks.

“I see... Well, _M_ , as you know I'm twenty years old,” she smiled to where Mikasa was supposed to be. “And my name is Petra.”

Mikasa nodded even though no one could see her.

It struck her that Petra was so friendly to her. That she even smiled, especially considering the situation  from which she’d escaped. Mikasa wondered if they had been saved in time. If in spite of having been used as human merchandise, no degenerate had managed to put a finger on them... Well, at least not to the younger ones, because it could be that Petra had been living horrible things for too long and still was able to smile anyway.

But maybe that grin didn’t manage to reach her eyes.

“Petra...” Mikasa murmured, hesitantly. “How come you guys ended up inside that wagon?”

Petra's hands caressed little Vivianne's head for a moment before answering.

“After some very brief conversations...” she said in a whisper. “Poor Vivianne made me understand that she was sold by her own mother to an ‘elegant’ man. A pimp, for sure. I don’t know how long ago that happened, but the kid ended up in the same cell as me about a week or so ago. The truth is I’ve lost some notion of time.”

Mikasa's eyes had opened wide. A lump formed in her throat as she watched the little girl. She was so pale, thin and fragile she looked sick. If she was sick, at least Eren could help her. She would have to tell Levi that Vivianne had to come with them.

“I don’t want to go into detail and I don’t think it’s necessary to,” Petra continued in a low voice, “but a woman who does that to her own daughter doesn’t deserve to be called a mother,” she sighed, still caressing the sleeping girl. “As for the others, well... Heike and Elsa are orphans. They were taken to my cell shortly after Vivianne arrived. I don’t know if Heike and Elsa want to say anything about their own circumstances...”

Still dismayed by Vivianne's brief story, Mikasa saw Elsa shake her head, while Heike moistened her lips, ready to speak.

“I...” Heike muttered, sitting a bit straighter and stretching her skirt. “I decided to work in a brothel a few weeks ago because I was dying of hunger. A friend had started before me and told me that at least she had a bed to sleep in and two meals a day,” she said, shrugging. “One day, when my second week of work had just begun, a skinny, mustached man arrived and he examined us one by one. After he talked with my boss alone, he took me with him. I'm not sure what happened in between, I think he drugged me with something because I suddenly realized I was in a cell, stunned and confused, although I wasn’t the only one there.”

Mikasa observed Heike, curious about the way she had talked about her experience. It was as if she was telling what had happened to someone else and not to herself, or like someone who talks about the weather.

“Heike, do you remember the face of the man with the mustache?” Mikasa asked in a thin voice.

“I think so,” she nodded.

“Well, I need you to please try to remember as much as possible about that man,” it was a must to find that guy. “Someone could make a facial composite with your information. It’s important.”

“Alright.”

Mikasa sighed. “Thanks... for telling me a little about you, Heike.”

“You're welcome!” She grinned broadly.

The fact that someone who had lived a shitty life could smile in that way surprised her again.

It could be that despite everything Heike was an optimistic person. Like Petra, maybe. Although Mikasa doubted it was only a matter of optimism.

She scanned the visible part of Heike's face and then her gaze descended to Heike's hands. She noticed that her fingertips were somewhat swollen, perhaps reddened, but she couldn’t exactly tell under the dim light of the only lamp in there. Mikasa leaned toward her and could see that her fingernails were bitten down so far that the skin must be in the process of growing around what little was left. Some fingers even had dark scabs of dried blood.

“What about you, Petra?” Mikasa asked after a moment of silence, not without some fear.

Petra's lips stretched into a small smile.

“I haven’t led a life as complicated as theirs, quite the contrary,” she said, as if it embarrassed her. “You could say that in general I’ve had luck in life, until a few months ago the military police took and imprisoned my father for alleged tax evasion. My father had always paid them, but I guess you already know how corrupt those guys are,” Petra huffed, indignant. “It’s obvious that the collector and the policemen kept the money. The funny thing is that the same policemen who had accompanied the tax collector every time he charged us were the ones who took my father. It was absurd! We showed them the payment vouchers, signed by the collector himself, and they didn’t care. They ripped them off before our eyes and put them in their pockets.”

Mikasa shook her head. She would have to talk about it with Annie.

“In what district was this?” She asked, curious.

“On the outskirts of Karanes,” Petra replied and continued with her story. “As I only lived with my father, I had to do everything I could to keep our small farm and business running on my own. We sell eggs, milk and cheese. We have some chickens and goats.”

“I like... goats,” Elsa whispered in a sleepy voice, right before falling asleep.

“I hope one of these days you can meet mine,” Petra grinned. “As soon as he heard about my situation, a friend began to help me almost every afternoon. He rode to the farm for almost forty minutes as soon as he finished his own job in the center of the district. I told the idiot that it wasn’t necessary that he helped me,” she clenched a fist and lifted it in the air. “Or that he didn’t need to come so often at least, but he kept doing it until he got so exhausted he got sick. One night, a few days after Oruo could no longer help me, some guys came with the excuse that they wanted to buy a dozen eggs,” she let out a bitter laugh. “It was a lie, of course.”

Mikasa frowned.

“Were those the ones who took you against your will?” She asked.

“Yes. They put a gun to my head and forced me to write a farewell letter to Oruo. Clearly they’d been spying on me and knew of my close relationship with him. Even...” Petra hesitated. “They even knew that Oruo had stayed with me for a couple of nights. I think that was enough for them to assume he was my future husband or something... And well, they made me write lies, like that I had decided to try a new life somewhere else and more nonsense, they even made me ask Oruo to forget me because it was the best for him,” she clicked her tongue. “If Oruo found the letter, I doubt he’ll believe half of it. Or so I hope. And I also hope that he, or someone else, is taking care of my poor animals... If they are still there.”

Mikasa could bet that this Oruo guy, since he had learned of the disappearance of his beloved Petra, hadn’t stopped looking for her, and she was happy for them because soon the search would end. Who knows, maybe they'll meet again tomorrow, or in a couple of days. However, they would be together again, even if it was in a different place.

But for safety, Petra shouldn’t return to her farm for a while.

It was in the midst of her ramblings that Luther and Volker left the other room carrying the three coachmen, who didn’t seem to be bruised enough for her taste.

Levi came into the warehouse soon after, carrying a few papers. He approached her and beckoned her to stand up. Mikasa followed him to the same place where they had previously talked.

“We already finished. We’ve decided to take them all to the hands of one of the leaders of the Legion, who lives here in Stohess,” Levi reported. “Luther will take all the guys tied in one wagon and you’ll go in another one together with the girls. Volker will drive.”

Mikasa nodded. It was better for the girls to go with the Legion than with any of their infiltrators in the military police, particularly Petra after her unfair experience.

“Where will you go?” Mikasa asked.

“I'll go get Reiner. See you later.”

Before Levi could get away, Mikasa held him back.

“No, wait. One of the girls seems to be sick,” she said. “Can we take her to Eren?”

Levi sighed, tired.

“You mean the smallest one, don’t you? I doubt that Eren could be of help, at least as a physician...” He avoided Mikasa's bewildered gaze. "That girl reminds me too much of you after Shiganshina. I think her biggest problem is that she's sad. Disconsolate... for feeling that she lost everything.”

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Eren realized his wait was useless when it was almost four in the morning and there were still no other signs of life in the house apart from his own. Staying awake had not been a challenge since he had difficulty sleeping after the encounter with the Legion and the fake corpse of Frieda.

The other nights the only thing that had helped him to sleep, and especially to remain asleep, had been sharing a room with Mikasa. Together, they carried his mattress from one side to the other. At night they would carry it to Mikasa's room and in the morning they would take it back to Eren's room. The hustle and bustle had been fun, like a game, because they had to always prevent Levi from catching them.

He only managed to sleep two or three hours in a row when fatigue won him over. Knowing he couldn’t fall asleep again soon, he got up to get a glass of water at about seven in the morning and found Levi in the kitchen. The usual dark circles around his eyes were darker than ever and his general appearance indicated he hadn’t shut his eyelids all night.

Eren greeted Levi, who responded with some sort of grunt.

Snippy, Levi told him that he had arrived at the hiding place with Mikasa at five something, at dawn. Eren asked some questions about it, but Levi hushed him and grudgingly told him that today he wouldn’t be supervising anyone and so Eren would have to go downstairs to train on his own.

Levi also ordered him to go to Kenny's office once lunchtime was over, which was the place where Eren was right now.

He glanced around and sat on one of the chairs in front of the battered desk.

“I thought Kenny would be here, too,” Eren said. “Is he coming later?”

“Kenny won’t come,” Levi drank all the tea that was left in his cup in a big sip. Eren had always thought he had a peculiar way of picking up cups and glasses. “I doubt he’ll come back today.”

Levi must have taken a nap and a bath, because his face looked a _little_ less exhausted, compared to when Eren had met him in the kitchen.

“What about Mikasa? I haven’t seen her. Did she eat with you upstairs?”

“No. Mikasa is still sleeping,” Levi said, rubbing his eyes. “Last night’s mission got complicated, especially for her.”

“She isn’t hurt, right?”

If Mikasa had suffered some type of injury, Eren had no doubt Levi would have reported it to him hours ago, however, he couldn’t help asking anyway.

Levi huffed.

“I guess she's always been hurt,” his fatigue was reflected in his voice. “At least since what happened to her back in Shiganshina... That's why I summoned you here. We need to talk about your next trip to that place, about Mikasa and other issues.”

“Can I... know what happened last night?” Eren asked, a bit unsure.

To his surprise, Levi wasn’t bothered by his question and was even more than willing to talk.

“We had a shitty situation. We found four girls inside a wagon that was supposed to only carry cold meat and that, of course, affected Mikasa,” Levi pinched the bridge of his nose, “but it was on the returning trip when she finished completely breaking down. After leaving her in her room, I talked to Kenny because I think it's the worst moment for her to go with you to Shiganshina... but everyone here knows the brat is more stubborn than a mule and will insist on going anyway. Now more than ever. In fact... in the middle of her breakdown, Mikasa demanded me the directions to get to her old cabin and to get to the place where I buried her parents,” he pointed at a yellowish sheet on the desk that Eren hadn’t noticed before. “I made a map with indications on how to get there from the center of Shiganshina. The only problem is that the cabin doesn’t exist anymore.”

Eren looked at the map. There were dashed lines here and there in addition to the name of some reference sites, the cardinal points and approximate distances.

“I don’t know that area very well, but I think it will not be so difficult for us to get there,” Eren murmured. “What happened to the cabin?”

“I burned it to the ground,” Levi kept his eyes fixed on the map. “I’ll explain to Mikasa the reasons before you leave Orvud tomorrow.”

Eren nodded.

“Did you burn the bodies of Mikasa's parents with the cabin as well?”

Levi gave him an offended look.

“Of course not.”

After a moment of silence between them, Levi explained he had not only talked with Kenny about the trip, but also with some of the members of the Legion. On the whole, they had decided that although it was safer to keep Eren in the lair most of the time, now it was more convenient to simulate that little by little his life was returning to normal, meaning to go back to everything he was doing before the Ackermans kidnapped him.

Eren's lips cracked in a bitter little smile.

“The only difference is that nothing will really be the same,” his gaze wandered heavy towards the cuckoo clock and Kenny’s wanted poster, whose paper forehead had a dark mark right in the middle, as if it had been pierced by a knife. “Not with what I know now.”

It would be hard to pretend life was still the same as always, when Eren was sure Rod Reiss was behind the sudden death of his father.

If the king had even lied about the death of his own daughter - for reasons that were still unknown to them - then he must have many more secrets and lies on his behalf.

“There is something else...” Levi's expression suddenly tensed. “Obviously, you and Mikasa must continue with the farce.”

Eren was disconcerted, not by what Levi had just said, but by his body language.

“Well, there's no problem with that,” he said, lifting and dropping a shoulder. “It's what we've done since the beginning.”

Levi frowned.

“I know, but now it will have to be seen as something that got serious. You should recognize her as your-” He grimaced. “Ugh, your official girlfriend. You’ll have to introduce her in high society and all that crap.”

Eren felt his face flush a little and hoped Levi hadn’t noticed.

“I guess it makes sense,” he cleared his throat. “It would be about time for the passi-, I mean the supposed th-things between us began to, I don’t know, calm down?” What the hell was he talking about? He had to shut his mouth. “To regain our judgement and that the relationship... evolved into something more, uh... stable? Like what, uh… normal people do?”

“Your babbling is interesting,” Levi scrutinized him with narrowed eyes. “I have no idea about how this kind of stuff works, but the four-eyes of the Legion tried to explain something to me about it. Besides, she made me understand that you have no idea either, because you’re supposedly not interested in the matter... But maybe you know more than she thought. It's that or now you do care,” he said in an accusatory tone.

Huh?

Eren felt a stupid urge to try to justify himself.

“Oi. I have had parents. I've seen a lot of people in love out there, especially patients. I have some idea about what happens with romantic relationships, okay?” Eren said, somewhat defensive. “And there is something called common sense.”

Levi didn’t seem very convinced.

“Whatever. I'll tell you what you should do to sustain the farce,” he growled, raising his index finger to start an enumeration. “One: you must take Mikasa with you on all your trips, not only for the romantic nonsense, but for safety. Two: Mikasa will accompany you to all the social events you get invited to. Three-”

“Wait,” Eren interrupted. “If I start accepting all those fucking invitations out of nowhere, then they’ll see it as something suspicious, or at least weird. In general I’ve always made up excuses to not go to those boring, full of snobs meetings. They’re not only annoying, they’re a waste of time.”

“I figure, but you have to go to some of those so the snob morons get to see how, ugh, ‘smitten’ you are for each other,” Levi rolled his eyes at what he himself had just said. “It's fucking stupid but necessary so that fat guy doesn’t try to capture Mikasa. After all, she used a fake identity to attend to the party. If several people apart from Rod Reiss find out and confirm how important Mikasa is to you, he would not want to put you or the other pro-romance suckers against him by putting her in a cell. Seriously, this is one of the most important points and the main reason why I’m spending spit on talking about all this shit.”

Eren nodded slowly. It seemed reasonable to him.

Since the news of the romantic flee had reached even the so-called pink section of the local newspapers, many people were aware of their supposed love at first sight affair. Surely more than some pro-romance sucker, as Levi had called them, was sighing while thinking it was something similar to what was told in  typical love stories. Therefore, Eren and Mikasa would have an audience in their favor.

Public opinion was extremely important for a king like Rod, who lacked even more than charisma. If he all of a sudden decided to imprison a simple young lady in love, the public would see it as a completely disgusting act. In addition, he would betray Eren's trust and lose him as an "ally".

Eren bet that even Historia would depreciate something like that and take Eren’s side.

For the first time, he appreciated being relatively well-known and popular with people because of the scope of his profession.

“I hope it works and that, if it doesn’t, you have an alternative plan to not allow Mikasa to end up behind bars.”

“We already have it,” said Levi. “You just do what you have to do and pretend that everything is fine with the king. If you think it's time to visit the Palace, or if he invites you, then Mikasa must go with you so that the guy believes you still trust him, and for him to see that you both are a ‘real’ couple,” he grunted, pulling out a folded paper from his pocket. “The crazy woman wrote some suggestions. This is the third point I was trying to say earlier, here.”

Eren stretched the small sheet of paper and found Hange Zoe's chaotic but oddly readable handwriting. He took a quick look at the list of _suggestions_. He opened his eyes wide, swallowed and folded the paper again.

Levi pierced him with his glare.

“My advice is that you don’t follow that list to the letter,” he warned, coldly. “For that matter, if I find out you've behaved like a smart-ass, I'll slice your balls. Just devote yourself to behaving lovestruck in public, but always be careful where you put your hands and _other things,_ ” he said between his teeth.

“Yeah…” was all Eren managed to say, nodding without blinking.

His answer only made things worse. Eren could swear that a huge vein had just swollen in Levi’s forehead and that he looked at him as if all he wanted in life was to strangle him. But why? He had not done more than accept everything Levi had told him to do and no to do in order to follow in the best possible way all that justified madness.

“That ‘yeah’ sounded very weak,” Levi complained. “I don’t like it.”

But what else could he say?

“Huh... Well, if you don’t agree and you don’t like what’s written on this list...” Eren began to speak slowly. “Why did you give it to me?”

Levi's jaw was way too tense.

“I was just trying to prove something,” he muttered once he seemed to calm down a bit. “But I suppose I already knew it. It was obvious it would happen sooner or later.”

Eren raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

Levi gestured impatiently with his hand to dismiss the question.

“Forget it,” he snapped, sullen. “The only thing that matters is that the fucking love charade has to be credible so both of you are somehow safe.”

“Then...” Eren's tone was now as careful as possible. “Mikasa and I will have to talk about the things my teacher wrote on the list.” Levi frowned and Eren continued, hiding his nervousness and praying that the damn burning of his cheeks wouldn’t give him away. “Hey, I swear I won’t do anything that makes her uncomfortable. The problem is that if we only reduce it to holding hands and grinning stupidly at each other, the most observant ones won’t buy that we are a true couple. Especially Rod Reiss, that old man isn’t stupid… And Mikasa and I aren’t twelve, do you understand what I mean?”

Levi's silence seemed eternal to him.

“I know,” he spoke at last with such a sour and defeated demeanor that it made him appear twenty years older. “I guess it really is inevitable.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt some sort of second-hand embarrassment - which isn't even second-hand - when writing the scene between Levi and Eren because of reasons sdfkjndfg. If you felt something similar to _hehehe_ while reading, then mission accomplished (?)
> 
> It could be said that with this chapter the "first arc" of this story comes to an end. Starting from next chapter, called _Shiganshina_ , the relationship between Eren and Mikasa will become deeper and, well, I guess you already somewhat know what to expect from this silly pair... Or perhaps you don't _*insert Lenny face here*_
> 
> I'll soon publish the extract of Levi's memories about smol Mikasa on Tumblr just for the sake of it.
> 
>  **Random news:** on June I published another eremika fic based off Terminator. You can find it in my profile in case you feel like reading it. The name's **Remember the Future**.
> 
> The biggest THANK YOU to **BlossomingRosebud** for leaving such a nice comment on chapter 10. To know that people enjoy what I write is such an amazing feeling ❤
> 
> Thanks to everyone for the over 100 kudos!!!!


	12. Shiganshina (Part I)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special and biggest thanks to Selena (a.k.a. Kaekiro), fellow writer and eremika shipper, for helping me out by checking all the English wording and grammar of this chapter~

Mikasa's head fell on his shoulder after a jolt caused by a bump in the road. Her soft hair stroked Eren's cheek and he sensed a pleasant, flowery and clean scent.

It had taken them about an hour to cover the distance between the Orvud district - where the Ackerman hideout was located - and that of Mitras. They should be close by. In Mitras, they had to board the riverboat that would take them to Shiganshina, three hours of sailing across the widest and most relevant river of Paradis, the Sina.

Mikasa had fallen asleep as soon as she took her place in the carriage, after dedicating him a weak and somewhat elusive  _good morning_. Because of what happened during her last mission with Levi, it was clear she hadn't managed to get enough sleep despite the pain and emotional exhaustion she must be going through.

The speed of the carriage gradually diminished and the sleeping body of his companion slid forward. Eren put an arm around her shoulders and gently returned her to her initial spot. She opened her eyes as if her eyelids weighed a ton and looked at him with reddened sclera.

"Huh? Are we there yet?" her voice was slightly hoarse and lazy.

"Yes..." said Eren. "We need to talk fast about something before getting off, are you conscious enough?"

Mikasa rubbed her eyes and stretched a little.

"What is it?"

"We're going on a ferry and will be surrounded by a lot of people, so we must be careful with what we say and, you know, behave like a couple during the whole trip," Eren spoke quickly. "I think everything will be easier if you continue sleeping, if you want to. You can do what you did now - rest your head on my shoulder. I can hold you or something," he said with a nod while withdrawing his arm from Mikasa's shoulders.

She jerked upright and blood flowed furiously to her pale cheeks. "Sorry. I didn't realize."

"It's fine, it doesn't bother me," Eren offered her a friendly little smile. "So, do you agree with that?"

"Yes... but I don't know if I'm sleepy enough as to sleep an hour or two more," she stirred in her place. "We'll have to improvise, like at the beginning."

"Ah. In that case, you're going to have to help me because... you've already realized that I'm not as good at improvising as you are. Not with  _romantic_  things, at least."

Gottfried opened the carriage door a minute later, informing they had arrived at Mitras. He helped them to get off and to carry their luggage to the small pier where the riverboat would soon arrive. They both thanked the always anxious coachman for his help and said goodbye to him. There were few people waiting in the place. No one seemed to notice them, which was a relief. For Eren, it was a miracle when people minded their own businesses.

"It's not necessary for us to do much," Mikasa said in a low voice, at his side. She took his arm just like she used to do when they were in public. "I think holding hands or going like this while sitting, or hugging a little and laughing stupidly from time to time, is enough. And talk like this, as if we were flirting..." She slightly squeezed his arm and offered him one of her feigned smiles. Eren had learned to identify them perfectly now that he knew the true ones. Those fake smiles were so insipid that they made him feel nothing. "When we're talking like this you should also smile a bit, Eren."

Eren nodded and, after a pause, had an idea very unlike of him. He grimaced and showed all of his teeth in an exaggerated and hideous smile. He was sure he looked like a lunatic, like Kenny, or worse. His face hurt.

Mikasa raised her eyebrows and then frowned, confused. After a few moments, she shook her head and started to chuckle. She hit him on the chest with her free hand.

"What are you doing?" She complained between giggles. It was the second time he heard her laugh. Or the third, he wasn't sure anymore. "Stop."

"It was on purpose," he defended himself like a fool, feeling a sudden embarrassment at the ridiculousness of what he'd just done. Fighting against the sensation, he stroked the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. Really, what was that? "I guess it worked..." he cleared his throat. "Look at you. You're giggling like one of those flirtatious and in love girls I've seen out there."

Mikasa's laughter died down and her anxious eyes looked in every possible direction, except the one that included him. Eren didn't quite understand what he'd done wrong for her to change her attitude so suddenly. He doubted the stupid grimace had anything to do with it. It must've been something he'd said.

"I-I'm hungry. I'll go see what I can buy to eat during the trip," she said quickly, releasing his arm and distancing herself from him. "Do you want something?"

Puzzled, Eren took a step toward her.

"I'm going with you" he said, frowning.

She backed away. "No. No, you stay here and take care of our things. I won't take long."

Eren saw her walk away hurriedly and cross the street toward a bakery located on a corner. Mikasa didn't even wait for him to tell her what he'd like to eat. Concerned, he wondered if he had accidentally offended her with the comment he made about her laughter. Or if she had suddenly remembered the things that had affected her a couple of nights ago, during that mission that got complicated. Maybe it's been because of both things, or none of them. It could be due to a reason he'd not even thought about. In reality, he was certain he had no idea.

He ran a hand through his hair. This type of attitude from Mikasa confused him and even exasperated him a little. Sometimes he felt as if he were walking on eggshells. When things got uncomfortable between them, he never knew exactly why. Mikasa just tended to flinch, stay quiet and change her attitude all of a sudden.

Eren had to be more aware of what he said and did around her. It wouldn't be ideal if people saw this and began to realize the reality of their relationship, how little they knew about each other. Ironically, if they were supposed to be a couple then they must know each other much better than that. Than this.

One of his hands unconsciously slid into the pocket of his linen jacket and his fingers brushed the list made by his professor. He wasn't quite sure if he should bring it up and discuss it in detail with Mikasa right now. Each time he thought about it, the topic seemed to become more and more uncomfortable for him to deal with, let alone talk about putting it into practice. Despite this, he considered some of the suggestions to be quite good and reasonable, to the point where they would certainly improve the credibility of the supposed romance that existed between them.

Specific suggestions on how to look at each other, where to place one's hands and levels of physical closeness that denoted big mutual trust weren't a problem. In fact, he was grateful about these. It wasn't that the idea of kissing someone seemed very terrible nowadays for him either... What put him in a bind had to do with other types of suggestions to make sure the relationship was more "authentic", throwing away "complicity" and "intimacy" in the eyes of those who were the spectators. There was also that suggestion that, at times, both of them should be found to be behaving in ways that could be considered impulsive and even inadequate or immoral, that  _this would undoubtedly make sense for the supposed type of relationship they had._ It was that and what came next which caused Eren anxiety, to the point his heartbeat accelerating.

When he received the list he didn't have time to read it completely. The little he got to see surprised him, of course. The matter only became overwhelming when he took the time to read it calmly later. It was a suggestion in particular that made him think his teacher couldn't be serious, that it almost had to be a joke, and yet Levi himself had given him the damn paper and had even warned him not to follow everything to the letter, otherwise...

_**I'll slice your balls** _

_That._  The result would be castration.

It wasn't as if Eren was willing to go to that extreme with Mikasa, how could it even occur to him? Obviously not. Of course not. And she surely wouldn't want… actually, he wasn't so sure.

What if she… if she took the list seriously?

He swallowed. No, it couldn't be.

_At least castration isn't so terrible, compared to ending up turned into an eunuch._

Wait a minute! But what the…? Was he really relieved by the fact Levi mentioned he'd cut his balls and nothing else?

Moreover, why was he even considering the option of this happening? What was his damn problem?

"Eren, are you okay?" Mikasa asked, appearing out of nowhere in front of him and making his heart leap violently against his ribs. For a moment, he feared he'd been speculating about the fate of his poor genitals out loud. Luckily, he hadn't. "You look hot."

Yes, he felt heated. He realized then that he was even sweating a little. "Y-yeah, everything's fine. It's because of the sun."

The day was clear and the sun, though autumnal, warmed enough to blush someone's skin. His explanation seemed to be enough for Mikasa.

Because of his damn teacher, now Eren imagined...  _things._

"I bought some cookies and chocolate breads," Mikasa showed him a paper bag. "I hope you like them."

The pier was crowded with people waiting for the ferry, which arrived almost twenty minutes late. As the ticket vendor had announced, that riverboat had the Maria dock as its last stop on its route, from where the large ships ventured out to open sea.

Eren bought tickets for two seats in the most comfortable area, in which passengers who stood better economically used to travel. When he used the ferry on his own or with Armin, neither of them cared too much about comfort and preferred not to squander money. However, Eren didn't think it chivalrous or appropriate to take his "girlfriend" in the common area, where he'd only catch a seat with some luck or if there weren't too many passengers.

Once they boarded, they climbed the narrow ladders until they reached the second floor of the boat. Eren suggested for Mikasa to sit by the window, so she could enjoy the scenery during the trip. Maybe it would help her feel better in general and relax. Both had agreed to sit in the back row to have less public watching them, in case of anything.

Two of the men who worked on the ferry took their luggage and placed it on the metal grilles above their seats. Thanking them, Eren gave them a generous tip.

As the rest of the passengers settled down, one of them greeted him politely with a nod and a smile. Eren tried to respond to the greeting casually. A woman took the chance to throw curious glances at Mikasa.

"So, when you and Mikasa are at Stohess and Mitras, I'll accompany you from afar for a while and will keep an eye on your surroundings. I'll let you know if Rod sends someone to spy on you," Levi said the day before, after Eren told him the destinations and the itinerary he had in mind.

"I'm okay with that... that way we'll know how much he suspects me, because I get the impression that he must suspect something or that he will, at some point," Eren murmured.

Levi nodded.

The itinerary would begin with a short stay in Shiganshina to visit Armin for his birthday and some old friends or acquaintances of the district, which would be useful for him to practice all that thing about introducing Mikasa in society. In his native district, Eren could also treat some patients and fulfill Mikasa's desire to visit her old home. Then they'd have to move and spend about a week in Stohess, where he should visit well-off and extremely hypochondriac patients, as always, until Mikasa and him had to travel once more and stay for an indefinite time in Mitras, the capital. There at least he had his own apartment, a place he'd not set foot since the last time he saw Armin after the Reiss party.

"While you two play house, we'll continue to collaborate with the Legion," Levi explained. "I can't tell you exactly what we'll do and what's being planned, because I don't know certain details myself and there are many things at stake. The point is that Rod has to believe that you're still on his side, for as long as possible."

"I understand... but I don't want to be kept in the dark for too long," Eren said with a determined look. "Because I'm not so naive to believe that all this is just about revealing the lies of the Reiss family as an act of honor and public service," he clenched fists. "The only thing I ask for now and in exchange of my cooperation is that the Legion, the Ackerman and whoever is also involved, don't dare to put a single finger on Historia Reiss. She's my friend and she's innocent. Anyone who knows her origin could realize."

Levi seemed to weigh his words seriously before ending the long meeting they'd held.

Eren let out a weary sigh. There were too many things to worry about and it burdened him. He returned his full attention to the present moment, which was what he'd ought to focus on for now, and noticed that some passengers were turning around to give him and his companion brazen glances. Someone must have mentioned his name aloud, starting a generalized gossip.

Mikasa gazed absently at the landscape, nibbling on chocolate bread. Eren put a hand on one of her knees to get her attention, motioning for her to come closer as he leaned toward her too.

"We have a few priers spying on us," he whispered in her ear, pretending a smile to make it look like he was telling her  _who knows what._  "And I guess we unintentionally ignored each other for longer than we should have."

Soon, a fake smile also began to form on Mikasa's lips.

"I'm sorry. I got distracted thinking about a lot of things," she answered in a whisper. "But it's fine, let's keep talking like this for a while and smiling. Just remember to try and not look like a lunatic."

Eren winced.

"Right. Don't remind me," he groaned, squeezing her knee a little. He released her as soon as he realized he'd kept his hand there all this time. That is, for longer than necessary. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Eren. Real couples touch each other casually," she said in a thin voice, taking his hand and turning her attention to the landscape through the window, which until now were only a lot of houses and mountains that could be seen in the distance, whose summits were covered by a morning mist.

Eren's gaze dropped to their intertwined hands, which rested on his thigh and contrasted with his dark trousers. Mikasa had feminine and stylized hands, with long fingers and well-groomed nails that had a precise length so as not to break them during training or after wielding her hands to give some idiot a deserved punch. Her skin was soft to a large extent, except for her knuckles, where he could feel it rough and hardened. He thought of the battered sandbags in the Ackerman's lair, mended countless times and covered in patches.

"Is there something wrong with my hand?" she asked, feigning great curiosity.

Eren swore he would've heard her say the word "doctor" at the end of her question, but she didn't say it and he felt an absurd trace of disappointment.

"On the contrary," he said, raising their intertwined hands to pretend he was examining it with more attention. "Mmm... Your hands are fine. In fact, they are perfect. Congratulations."

Mikasa snorted, amused.

"It's the first time someone flatter my hands," she commented quietly after a few seconds of silence.

Eren had no need to fake a smile. On impulse, he leaned closer to her and his nose almost brushed her ear.

"Well, they say there's always a first time for everything," he whispered, and perhaps he did it very close to her, invading her personal space too much, because Mikasa suddenly became rigid and glanced away. Again. "Hey... did I say or do something wrong?"

She shook her head.

"I-it's not that..."

"So what is it? I need to know so I don't keep on messing things up," he insisted. "Like when you went to buy cookies this morning. Just before that I had said something, and you got weird and didn't let me go with you."

"Seriously, it's not your fault," she said. "It's me who... is messing things up..."

Eren blinked, bewildered.

"How?"

"This isn't the time for this kind of conversation, Eren," Mikasa muttered, in her voice an evident tone of disheartenment, weariness, and something else. She'd released his hand and a curtain of black threads hid half of her face from his inquisitive gaze. Eren was about to pull her hair back so he could see her expression clearly and know what the hell was going on with her, until she spoke again. "Maybe... later on... maybe one day I could tell you. Who knows… but not now, let alone here."

He pursed his lips and remained silent. He didn't want to force her to tell him whatever was going on in her head and complicate it, but on the other hand, he didn't want any person who saw them to question the veracity or the continuity of their supposed relationship, given her withdrawn attitude. Eren knew that couples didn't always behave lovey-dovey and that, sometimes, they even argued a little over everyday things - his parents did from what he remembered. The problem was that this situation was starting to put him in a bad mood.

Did that mean he was angry with Mikasa? Not quite. What bothered him was that almost always he said or did something spontaneous, she ended up acting in a strange way.

As much as she told him it wasn't his fault, Eren was sure he was at least a little to blame. What pissed him off the most was the lack of certainty. Not only with Mikasa, but with absolutely everything, and he had no choice but to appeal to patience. Once, or rather a few times, his father told him that patience was a cultivated virtue. Or something like that and, well, apparently that's what the case was now. It had been like that since he'd met Mikasa, the rest of the Ackermans and then, the Legion.

The answers would come, he just had to wait a bit, right?

Instead of letting out a grunt, his stomach roared.

"Oh, Eren! I forgot to offer you cookies," Mikasa said apologetically, showing him the inside of a paper bag. "Take as many as you want."

Patience had never been his thing, but there was no doubt that through the years and thanks to his job, he'd had learned to apply it. And above all, he was taught tolerance. He'd learned to quell the urge to strangle or pummel certain clients and standoffish men as well, but that was another issue.

"Thank you," he said curtly, taking out a cookie. He glanced at her sideways. "I thought you bought chocolate bread..."

"A-ah, yes," Mikasa confirmed, seeming a bit embarrassed. Just a little. "The only one left is... this one." Hesitant, she showed him the delicious treat she held in her other hand. "I... I was eating it now."

Eren raised his eyebrows exaggeratedly. "You didn't even leave me one?"

Mikasa shrank a little in the seat, took a quick nervous glance around and then approached him.

"Eren, they're watching us," she warned with an uncomfortable little smile.

"I don't care, they've done it the whole trip. Don't change the topic." He pointed out the chocolate bread. "It's your chance to redeem yourself as a decent  _girlfriend_. Give it to me."

She held the bread to her chest, covering it with both hands before she sent an incredulous look in his direction. "Wait... are you serious?"

"Yes."

On the verge of making a pout, Mikasa looked at the dough filled with chocolate inside and then looked back at Eren.

"But..." she bit her lower lip and whispered: "Right. It's okay. I'll give you the other end."

"Are you saying that because of the spittle?" he asked mockingly. "I don't care. I'm not germophobic."

She narrowed her eyes for a second and then, with a defeated sigh, she brought Eren what was left of the popular treat that she'd been devouring without any qualms, without the idea of sharing it crossing her mind. And so, Eren had just learned something new about Mikasa Ackerman and the blessed chocolate breads. It was like being in front of a little girl, but one addicted to sweets. Or perhaps to chocolate.

"Do you want some?" she offered in a normal voice with more volume, so that anyone who was attentive or close to them could listen to her. Her fake honey tone tried to disguise her obvious reluctance to share the food.

Eren snatched the bread from her hands in one bite. It wasn't necessary for Mikasa to pretend to be surprised and offended by the action, because she obviously was. She opened both her eyes and her mouth formed a funny "o" shape, and Eren couldn't contain his own laughter. He almost choked on what he had left to chew of the stolen chocolate bread in the name of justice, and hunger.

It had been too long since something had seemed so funny to him. He didn't even remember when it had been the last time he'd cracked up.

Mikasa looked at him, stunned, indignant, and Eren did what he could to try to control the tremor caused by his own laughter, but it was difficult.

"Are you angry,  _Margot_?" He asked in a sarcastic whisper once he managed to calm down enough to talk.

She crossed her arms. She must have suffered a big loss, because the bread tasted great.

"You only had to give it a bite," Mikasa answered between clenched teeth. "That's more flirty, you know?"

"Ah... I'm sorry. I'm terrible with these things," Eren feigned a distressed tone, although he had no way to contain his annoying smirk. "But I was hungry and it was the only thing left after  _someone_  scarfed everything down."

Mikasa shook one hand, downplaying it.

"It's alright. We actually don't need to try so hard right now," she said as she covered her mouth in the middle of a yawn, purposely ignoring half of what Eren had said.

Eren watched her while she rubbed her eyes, folded the paper bag - with some miserable cookies inside - and left it in her lap. Unlike the times she'd gone out in his company, Mikasa wasn't wearing one of those pretty dirndls she liked to wear so much, but instead she wore a simple white blouse tucked into a light brown skirt with a dark red wool shawl, which had slipped down to her elbows. Without thinking, Eren pulled the shawl up to her shoulders. The urge to bother her was gone.

Mikasa remained motionless for a few seconds and, without looking at him, she timidly thanked him for the gesture.

"If you want to sleep," Eren began as he gave her a small smile, "you can lean on me, you know."

After a prolonged silence, Mikasa dropped her head on his shoulder for the second time that morning.

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Mikasa had thought she'd feel like crying as soon as she got off the ferry and stepped on that district she'd left a decade ago, but it wasn't like that. Nothing in that side of Shiganshina was familiar or inspired her nostalgia. She only knew the outskirts. In her memory, there were only trees, small orchards, mountains, and the occasional cabin far away from hers. Unfortunately, the closest one was always abandoned.

When they needed something specific, it was her father who went down to the urban area while she stayed with Mom. At that time, she didn't understand why it had to be like that. Sometimes she whimpered because Dad didn't take her with him on his trips to the center of the district she was so eager to see.

Eren's warm hand entwined with hers and gave her a little tug.

"Armin's house is about twenty minutes of walk from here," he said, looking around with eyes narrowed by the glow of the pleasant autumn sun.

It must be noon already. The sky was completely clear. If it weren't for the few yellow leaves left in the treetops, the light cold breeze and the dense dark clouds approaching from the south, Mikasa would swear they were in the middle of spring.

She allowed herself to be guided by Eren through the cobblestone road while she scanned the houses, each one similar in style and so homely. They were smaller compared to those seen in districts such as Stohess and Trost. Most of the windows of these were wide open, making the most of the good weather. In some alleys, she could see freshly laundered clothes lying on strings that ran from one window to another, or between two houses. In the noisiest streets were small warehouses, butcher shops, vegetable or fish stands, as well as places to eat and drink with menus of the day written in chalk on a small black slate attached to the wall. There was an interesting aromatic mix of all kinds of foods. In other alleys, there were workshops of all kinds, offering their products and services as well as apothecaries that Eren had to be a regular customer of. People came and went, doing their shopping, greeting their acquaintances and chatting willingly.

As they moved away from the center of the city, walking parallel to the river, there were fewer and fewer people moving in the streets, except for the occasional noise of horse hooves pulling a carriage or carrying a lone horseman.

Mikasa noticed a small group of young women talking on the riverbank. One of them held a baby, the other held the hand of a two-year-old boy who pointed to the current of water and babbled, ecstatic, while the third woman rubbed her huge pregnant belly and laughed. This was the only one who stared back at her for a few seconds until her attention leapt to Eren, as she seemed to recognize him. The woman pointed at him in a not very subtle way to notify the others, so they would see what she was seeing.

"How well-known are you in Shiganshina?" Mikasa asked.

Eren gave her a sidelong glance without stopping walking.

"A lot of people know me. I think I'm still the only doctor who comes here to tend for free, why?"

"Some mothers are pointing you out. I think they want to talk to you... oh. The pregnant one is gesturing at me and she looks very happy."

As to avoid looking at the group of mothers, Eren squeezed her hand and hurried his step.

"Then we have to get to Armin's place fast. We have about five minutes to go."

"I doubt that the ladies give you the desperate reach. If the pregnant one runs for too long, she'd end up giving birth halfway."

"Mothers always have too many questions to ask about their children's health. Now we don't have time for that. I'll see them tomorrow or something. The pregnant woman may want to ask me to assist her in childbirth and, to be honest, I prefer to do other things. That's what midwives are for and-" they heard women shout his name to get his attention. "Shit. Come on, Mikasa, faster... stop looking at them!"

She just wanted to see if the pregnant woman would run after them or not. Even if Mikasa wanted to, she couldn't greet her back because of the suitcase she was carrying in her other hand.

They reached a narrow two-story corner house, very similar to the others she'd seen on the road, with white walls and dark wood details. After several of Eren's insistent and almost desperate knocks on the door, Armin appeared behind it, surprised to see them.

"Eren...! Mika-!"

" _Margot_ ," Eren immediately corrected him while moving Armin aside with his free hand, doing so in order to enter and close the door behind them. He breathed a sigh of relief, left his suitcase and his medical bag on the floor, and shook Armin in an effusive hug that thundered the bones of his back, "Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday, Armin," Mikasa repeated, leaving her suitcase aside.

Armin, without speaking, looked at them as if he still didn't believe they were there.

"My house is a mess!" He complained suddenly. Frantic, he began to pick up some cups with traces of coffee, sheets of paper, notebooks and books scattered on the floor. "If I had known you would come, Eren. I mean, that you two would come..." he corrected himself, giving Mikasa an embarrassed look. "I'd have arranged and cleaned before. I'm sorry you have to see this disgusting thing. I swear I'm not this messy, really. I had too much work this week and things to study and-"

"It's okay. We'll help you with all this," Eren said, grabbing the cups and taking them to where the kitchen seemed to be.

After helping him sort and clean enough, they sat down quietly to drink some tea. Mikasa let the old friends chat while she looked around. On the first floor was the old kitchen, the dining room and the living room. The longest wall was filled with books of different thicknesses and notebooks arranged on the shelves, for which Armin had a specific order. There was a cupboard under the staircase that led to the second floor. The worn-out sofa on which she'd sat seemed to be the householder's favorite. It received the best daylight, which made it a perfect place to read.

Even though it was his birthday, Armin didn't seem to have prepared anything to celebrate. He would have lived this day as if it was any other if it wasn't for her and Eren's company.

"I received Historia's gifts yesterday," she heard Armin say. "That huge book that I have on the table, a nice birthday note and a bicycle."

"A  _bicycle_?" Mikasa asked.

"Oh, you've never seen one? I'll show you, Mikasa. We can take a ride after lunch," he suggested, lively. "What do you say, Eren?"

"It's your birthday. We'll do what you want," he replied, nonchalant.

Armin looked at him with a mixture of surprise and skepticism. "I hope that you remember what you just said later."

"Don't make me regret it," Eren threatened with a half-smile while standing up.

Mikasa saw him go to where he'd left his medical bag, open it and put away his watch. Then he grimaced, as if he'd just remembered something, and pulled out a square of paper from his jacket to stow away inside his bag.

A list of things to buy at an apothecary, perhaps?

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

They had lunch at Armin's favorite little cozy homemade food stall, where they chatted about everyday things. Mikasa devoted herself to listening than anything, aside from making some comments and asking some questions so that he and his friend delved into the topics of conversation.

It seemed to Eren that Mikasa was having a good time, but maybe she still didn't feel confident to participate more. She was a shy girl, after all. Another possibility was that she continued to be more concerned about her own affairs than anything else. It was good news that he'd seen her smile a bit on certain occasions, especially now that Armin had been determined to tell details of their childhood together.

"Eren was what adults, especially teachers, classify as a "difficult child." He was terribly impulsive and, well, he did have a shitty temper at times," Armin said, grinning. He drank his last sip of red wine. "When we were nine years old..." He grimaced and turned to Eren, "it was when we were nine, right?"

Eren shrugged as he pricked a piece of roast beef with his fork.

"No idea about what you want to tell," he said, unconcerned.

"The attack with the book in literature class," Armin clarified.

"Oh, that... did I do it only once?"

"Yes," Armin frowned slightly. "As far as I know."

"Then let's say yeah, we were nine," he didn't think that detail was so relevant.

Eyes shining with evil, Armin turned to Mikasa and continued with the story of Eren's misadventures.

"Well, at age nine Eren stuttered several times while reading aloud a tongue-twister, and one of our classmates made fun of him and then imitated him with a stupid voice." Thanks to Armin's story, Eren visualized that situation again. He'd almost forgotten it. "Eren despised it when someone messed with him, in any way. So his face turned completely red... not because of shame, but because of fury! I still remember his look of infinite hatred and how his jaw tensed after closing the book at once. I can never forget him stomping his way to Otto's desk, ignoring the calls of our teacher. The whole class gasped when Eren screamed and slammed the book in his face with all his might."

Eren noticed Mikasa glanced at him sideways and pursed her lips, as if she was refusing to smile. Then she refocused her attention on Armin, who seemed to be enjoying himself too much while being the narrator of his past as an irritable child. Whatever, he would allow him to tell what he wanted and laugh at his expense just because it was his birthday and Eren had missed him.

"They scolded him a lot after that, right?" Mikasa asked.

His friend chuckled.

"Of course. They grounded him because he almost broke poor Otto's nose."

"Poor Otto?" Eren snorted. "The guy was a pain in the ass. Some classmates even thanked me for what I did. I was a hero," he said with a smirk.

Armin shook his head, clearly in a good mood.

"Whatever. The thing is that Uncle Grisha had to check the child that Eren left all bruised. He and Aunt Carla lectured Eren a thousand times more than the professor himself." Oh, yes. That was something Eren remembered in great detail. "He was held under house arrest. He only had permission to go to school. When he returned home, he couldn't go out to play or anything. For two full weeks he had to dedicate himself to just doing homework, studying and looking out the window, sighing like a helpless prince waiting for his rescue."

Eren clasped him on the arm and shook his head.

"What the hell are you talking about? I escaped about four times while I was grounded," Eren corrected him, proud as he crossed his arms.

After lunch, they returned to Armin's house to see the bicycle Historia had given him. It was painted light blue and had plenty of space between the seat and the handlebar. Armin explained to Mikasa that the bicycle was a means of transportation that had been invented a few years ago. It had gotten some modifications recently and was more comfortable and practical to ride, so some rich people had begun to buy it.

According to what Eren remembered, the Arlerts had also built a bicycle model many, many years ago, just out of curiosity. It was similar to the one that Historia gave to Armin now, however, the goal of Armin's parents was always to try to fly. They had a workshop in which they fixed, restored, and produced all kinds of mechanical things. They were also one of the first to build an artisan hot air balloon on the island, the same hot air balloon where they would later die due to an accident some time later, leaving behind a son who'd just turned eleven.

Armin took the bicycle to the street and showed them the way it was maneuvered. Eren tried to ride it, but at first he found it difficult to keep his balance. His friend had to help him holding the seat as he ran behind him. After a few attempts, Eren was finally able to move without help. It was still a bit hard for him to turn left though.

When it was Mikasa's turn, she refused to attempt to ride it.

"I prefer to see you this time," she said, excusing herself.

Armin looked very happy as he settled back on the bicycle.

"Do you want to take a ride?" He asked Mikasa, pointing to the metal tube between the seat and the handlebar. "You can sit here and I'll drive you around the block. We'll pass by the riverbank."

Eren watched as the girl struggled for a few seconds, until she nodded and approached his friend and sat on the tube with both legs hanging on one side. She picked up her skirt to prevent it from catching on the chains or pedals and clung to the tube in the middle of the handlebar. Armin had to open his legs more to be able to pedal without kneeing her. Without much more preamble, he rode the bicycle and they left.

They returned some minutes later, laughing softly. Mikasa was laughing. She was smiling and her face was rosy, as was Armin's.

Eren felt a strange shift of his stomach, as if a weight had been added to it. Seeing Mikasa so cheerful seemed great to him. The thing was that she wasn't smiling at him like that, but at Armin, and they were both laughing as if they had a secret of which he wasn't part of, and it gave him a bitter feeling.

Why was he feeling this way? His friends were just having a good time. Armin was enjoying his special day and Mikasa looked happy. His best friend and his new friend got along. This was a source of joy, not of sudden and unnecessary negative feelings.

Armin stopped laughing when he met his gaze. He even looked down at the ground, apparently ashamed, like someone who's been caught doing something he shouldn't be doing. This reaction ended up confusing Eren even more.

"I almost ran over a man who was crossing the street," he began to say. "I really wouldn't have managed to do it. His scream was so dramatic and funny when he saw that, from laughing so much with Mik- _Margot_ , we almost fell down. We've not stopped chuckling since then."

"Oh..." was all Eren managed to say, his lips curled in an uncomfortable and forced way.

A hand settled on his arm. It was Mikasa, who was looking at him somewhat worried.

"Are you okay? Did something happen while we weren't here?"

"No, nothing." He stroked his stomach, frowning. "The food fell a little heavy on my stomach I think, but nothing terrible."

Avoiding Armin's questioning gaze, Eren focused his attention on the bicycle.

"Hey," he said suddenly, addressing Mikasa, "do you want to... take a ride with me now?"

After a few seconds that seemed eternal to him, she nodded shyly.

"Eren," Armin called him, "I don't think it's safe to give her a ride around if you just learned to use the bicycle less than an hour ago. I've practiced since last night, and years ago I'd already learned to ride one, although it was too big for me. Do you remember when I told you that?"

Eren frowned.

"Yeah. Fine. You're right." No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hide his sudden irritation. "I'll give a couple of laps on my own. When I feel safe and able to maneuver this thing, then I'll ride a few meters with her too, alright?"

His friend sighed. "Fine."

He got on the bike and started pedaling. Maintaining balance was easier for him when he added more speed. As he gained confidence in his ability, he pedaled faster. The handlebar shivered under his hands. The wind cleared his face and dried his eyes a little. He practiced turning from one side to the other. Instead of going around the block twice, he gave three laps and even practiced zigzagging. The few people on the street were watching the bicycle with amused curiosity. This was a children's game. Eren was more than ready to take Mikasa for a ride on it.

But when he returned to the starting point, Armin suggested that instead of taking her around the block, it would be better if he took her across the clear path between the river and the houses.

"If you move on a straight road there is less chance of you having an accident."

Eren decided to listen to him. He didn't want Mikasa to get hurt because of him, neither for them to make fools of themselves by falling down on the street in front of passers-by. His level of stubbornness wasn't above his ability to analyze certain situations.

About three meters from the river's edge, Eren got on the bike and waited for Mikasa to settle in front of him. She didn't hesitate to do so. She trusted him and this made him smile.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes." She said, returning the smile before looking forward.

Eren left one foot on the ground and supported the other on the pedal, giving himself the impulse to put the bicycle in motion. The extra weight made starting off difficult, but he soon managed to keep going and moving forward without major complications. The breeze caressed his hair and face. Mikasa's hair whirled in front of him and tickled his cheeks. The sky was almost completely covered by the gray clouds that came from the south.

Towards the end of the route they had defined, Eren turned to go back. He had to put his foot back on the ground to prevent a fall and pulled it off, successfully. He made his way back to Armin, who was waiting for them a hundred meters away. He saw him in the distance saluting with one hand up.

Mikasa turned to Eren. Her eyes sparkled and her smile was so open and sweet that it surprised him. His stomach reacted strangely and something stopped working in his brain. Stunned, he lost track of what he was doing. He stopped paying attention to the road to hold Mikasa's gaze. Everything else, except for her, disappeared. He kept pedaling by inertia, but he'd long forgotten he was riding a bicycle. All Eren knew was that Mikasa should smile like that more often. It suited her. She looked good, prettier than ever and...

Eren widened his eyes.

What was this? What the hell was going on?

Since he couldn't slap himself for having his hands full, Eren shook his head in a desperate attempt to get his brain back to normal functioning. Then he heard Armin screaming something in the distance, and also Mikasa's startled gasp.

"Eren, we're going to-!"

But she didn't get to finish giving him the warning before the front wheel suddenly leaned down.

Shit! Had they fallen into a hole?

They continued falling. They slid down a short, bumpy slope full of rocks until water splashed. Lots of water. They had just fallen into the river because of him and he'd not even managed to use the brake.

Mikasa gave a short shriek when her body came into contact with the icy water, still in his arms. Eren had held her in a hug in an automatic and clumsy attempt to protect her. They both ended up submerged underwater. Disentangling himself from the bicycle, Eren pressed both feet on the riverbed and stood up, not letting go of Mikasa, who was so stiff she seemed frozen.

The water reached to his chest and it almost covered Mikasa's shoulders.

Armin suddenly appeared in front of them, breathing hard. He extended a hand from the shore to help them out of the river.

"Help Mikasa," Eren said, gently pushing the girl for her to reach his friend.

It was then he realized that the bicycle should be at the bottom of the river and being carried by the current. He couldn't see it clearly from the outside, so he submerged and opened his eyes under the water. He spotted Armin's birthday present a few meters away from him, descending more and more down the muddy slope of the river and slowly being swept away by the current. If he didn't try to take it out now, he would lose it.

He came up to the surface to take a breath and, with a kick, dived with skill worthy of a good swimmer. He managed to grab the bicycle from the rear wheel, though he couldn't move it much. The front wheel and one side of the handlebar were buried in the mud and made the task difficult.

Before leaving to breathe again, Eren heard a splash and saw a lot of bubbles beside him. Armin had jumped into the water to help him.

"Ow! It's frozen!" he complained with his blond hair soaked and stuck to his head and face, like a bronze helmet.

"We have to pull the bicycle at the same time." Eren said.

His poor friend now was also wet and getting cold because of him.

"Right. At the count of three," Armin nodded, "one... two... three!"

Both inspired all the air they could hold in their lungs and sank into the water. They were able to grab the rear wheel and drag the bike through the mud more successfully than Eren had tried to do on his own. When their heads emerged to catch their breath, neither of them had let go of it. They had managed to save the precious gift.

Upon leaving the river, they noticed Mikasa was waiting for them hugging herself and shivering. Her hair fell on both sides of her face like black, glossy tentacles. The white shirt stuck to her shoulders and arms, just as her skirt stuck to her legs. Beneath her, a pool of water had formed on the ground, water dripping from her clothes, and all because Eren hadn't done what he had to do.

"I'm so sorry," he said, addressing both her and Armin, who was holding the bike by his side.

Mikasa shrugged and said something unintelligible.

"What? I didn't understand you."

"Nothing. It's okay..." she said while rubbing her arms.

Armin gave Eren a friendly pat on the back.

"Yes. Everything's alright, Eren. Nobody drowned and I doubt that we'll get hypothermia," he said with trembling voice. "Besides, we managed to save my second best birthday present."

Eren didn't feel like asking which one was the best one. "Let's go back before we get more cold. We have to change clothes soon, dry off and drink something hot."

He approached Mikasa and took her hand, without thinking too much and without even taking into account the scarce public they had at that time. Her skin was so cold Eren couldn't do anything but put his other hand on hers to give her some more heat. Soon, all of that seemed stupid to him and he just hugged her. It was the best way to warm her up.

They walked almost all the way back in silence, until a few steps from the house Armin began to laugh and Eren and Mikasa looked at him as if he'd just lost his mind.

From one moment to other, Armin was bursting with laughter. He held his stomach with both hands, which apparently already hurt him from laughing so much. He was even crying. Eren started to laugh too. Timidly, Mikasa also joined the generalized laughter and the three entered the house soaked, but in a very good mood. Armin lost his balance twice and stumbled, but Mikasa managed to hold him so he didn't get to fall with his bicycle and everything.

"Thank you!" He said, exhilarated. "Guys, I had a lot of fun! People looked at us like we were crazy people who purposely threw themselves into the river." His blue eyes casted a mischievous glance in Eren's direction. "Oh... but if there was someone who needed a bath of cold water, it was Eren."

Eren ignored his comment on his way to the kitchen. He filled a metal teapot with water and took it to the living room, where Armin was lighting the fireplace and Mikasa was taking her boots off. He handed the teapot to Armin, who hung it from a metal arm over the flames that were slowly fueling.

"Come, Mikasa," Eren called her, "I'll take your suitcase to one of the rooms. You can change your clothes up there. We'll change downstairs."

"Wait. I have to go get my clothes before she starts changing." Armin said, still in high spirits, running upstairs.

Once they were all changed and dry, Eren gave a cup of hot chocolate to Armin and Mikasa, who had sat on the floor by the fire. After drinking the contents of his own cup, Eren announced he'd go out to buy something for dinner, since he didn't feel like cooking. They also needed a birthday cake.

The rest of the afternoon flew by, quite calm and lazy after the disaster of the bicycle ride. The three enjoyed the food and the company. It drizzled outside.

"Thanks for coming, guys, I wasn't expecting it. Thanks to you two, I had a great day." Armin said, sprawled on his favorite sofa with a pleased expression. He set aside the plate with his third piece of half-eaten cake. He had a patch of cream on his cheek.

"I'm glad you've had a good time despite everything." Eren said with a wince, looking sideways at Mikasa, who was at his side.

"Eren, come on, I told you already. The fall to the river was the best part," Armin smiled. "I've had such a good time that I even feel the pleasant fatigue that you can only feel when you've had a great day. Like when we spent all day on the beach... do you know that feeling, Mikasa?"

Mikasa had been silent almost all this time. It was nice of Armin to try to include her in conversations whenever he could.

"I don't know..." she replied, "I may be getting to know it. I also feel tired... but it's a bit different compared to other times."

"It seems you've also had a lot of fun today." Eren's lips stretched in a half-smile. "I never heard you laugh so much before."

"Y-Yeah, it's been fun."

"Except the fall to the river, right? I'm really sorry. You looked... annoyed, or scared."

Mikasa giggled.

"It was because of the shock. The water was very cold." Then she continued in a low voice, as if embarrassed of her next words, "besides, I don't know how to swim."

Eren and Armin gasped in surprise.

"I thought the Ackermans knew how to do everything." Eren murmured. "Nobody has taught you? Have you ever been interested in learning to swim?"

"I don't know... I think Kenny knows how to swim. Levi... I'm not sure, because to him everything is disgusting. I remember he once told me he hates beach sand because it smells funny, it's annoying, it gets everywhere and it's hard to clean, and the sea has 'who knows what kind of crap.'" she shook her head, amused. "I've only seen the sea from afar, so I've never stepped on the sand on its beaches."

"That's it. We're going to have to take you to some lake and then to the beach," Armin said, straightening on the couch. "In spring or summer, of course. Not now. The sea is very aggressive and ice cold at this time of the year."

"Yeah. We can teach you, if you want."

Mikasa nodded. She seemed a little uncomfortable with all the attention turned towards her. They remained silent for a while, until Armin spoke again.

"As we're all tired, it's time to decide where each of us will sleep," he said with a smirk that seemed suspicious to Eren. "You two can sleep in my bed."

"I can sleep in this couch," Mikasa said immediately, her face red.

Eren objected.

"No. I'll sleep in the couch. Armin will sleep in his own bed and you can sleep on the bed in Armin's grandfather's old room," he said, glancing at the house owner to corroborate that it wasn't a bad idea. At Armin's nod, Eren continued. "That's what we're doing then."

"You can also sleep with me, Eren," Armin said, "like back in the old days. I have a big bed now, that's why I was offering it to you and Mikasa. You wouldn't have to sleep glued to each other or anything like that... I mean, if that's not what you want," he added in a low voice and looked away, as inconspicuously as possible.

Eren could feel the brief weight of the gaze Mikasa gave him, and for an obvious reason, he remembered the damn list again...

_The list!_

He was flabbergasted thinking that it had spoiled after he fell into the river. That at this point the list must have been undone between his soaked clothes and its ink, run, but soon he remembered he'd kept it in his briefcase before leaving for lunch. An ironic sigh of relief almost escaped his lips. Almost, because it wasn't that the whole subject was too relieving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter I've published til now, over 9k words long. And aw, shit, you've no idea how glad I am of finally "getting rid" of it xD and to give you lots of eremika... since it's very necessary in this dark times *ahem, snk 112, ahem* Just as I wrote on Tumblr, it seemed ironic and funny to me that my chapter 12 is so "nice" compared to the manga's 112.
> 
> Most of what I wrote here are things I've been thinking about for a long while and, in fact, this chapter's draft has been done since late November. Just on December 15th I finally managed to finish editing it.
> 
> Thanks so much to all the people that left kudos and especially to the ones that commented past chapter: Kaekiro, Em and JaegerBombs! <333333
> 
> * I wasn't going to continue translating my fic into English because of the scarce support received in past chapter (on both FFnet and AO3), but after snk 112 I thought people that still reads this fic deserved something nice anyway, especially the people that did review! I also dedicate this update to everyone that suffered because of the manga and that despite everything are still firm with eremika. Now I ship it in a more hardcore way than before (which is lmao bc I even spent some months without shipping anything in SnK)
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this update and I wish you say something about it in a comment. You don't need to write a comment in English if you think you can't express yourself properly. You can write one using your mother tongue as well, I can always translate!


	13. Shiganshina (Part II)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super grateful for the support, all the kudos and the beautiful reviews in the previous chapter written by Yodawgiherd, M, Kaekiro, Loty2020, Boomer14, doterino, Nandi27, Manar21, Minerva6, Chompyboigalliard, yahoooooermk, DidNothinWrong and Mmcclintock
> 
> Thanks a lot and lots of good vibes for each one of you!
> 
> Special thanks to Selena (Kaekiro) for looking over the English version!

The hours of travel by carriage and ferry, in addition to the unexpected dive in the freezing autumnal waters of the Sina River, ended up draining their energy too early. The trio didn’t get to drink half of the beers and wine Eren bought that afternoon. They also weren’t able to eat enough cake. At least, if Armin dared to continue celebrating turning twenty-one, they would have enough to drink and eat the next day.

Eren pulled on the covers up to his neck. Sharing a bed with Armin as adults had a certain nostalgic charm to it. It almost felt like one of their classic nocturnal childhood hangouts, where they occasionally pretended to be explorers who camped in unfamiliar and inhospitable places. Other times they only had extensive discussions about anything until they were unable to stay awake. A recurring theme as they grew up was what they wanted to become when they got older and, unlike Armin, Eren's responses tended to vary as he didn’t have a clear goal. The illness that attacked his mother is what ended up convincing him to become a physician, just like his father.

The fun nocturnal stays became more complicated with the passage of time. They no longer fit comfortably in bed together and they used to complain to each other because one ended up occupying more space than the other, although the one who took over the bed was always Eren as he was a bit bigger, taller and restless. Except for the winter months, the rest of the year they got angry because it was very hot. Every time they woke up in the middle of the night, they pushed away the one who was still asleep. The last bed-sharing stay was when they were about twelve years old. Armin slept oriented in the common upright position while Eren slept with his head on a pillow at the foot of the bed. That unpleasant night, Eren received a sudden knee in the crotch and Armin a stinky kick in the face. They woke up in such a bad mood that they even argued for the stupidest things and didn’t want to see each other for the rest of the day.

After Eren sold his family's house and moved to Mithras, every time he returned to Shiganshina he slept in what once was Armin's grandfather's room. Today was the exception since Mikasa had decided to sleep in grandpa's old room. According to her, the best was for Eren to make the most of the little time he could spend together with Armin, which included sleeping together like in the old days. Luckily, his friend now owned a very comfortable bed with enough space for two people, thus they could avoid last time’s unconscious blows.

“So...” said Armin by his side. Shadows vibrated on the ceiling at the flickering light of a candle that was running out of wax. “How's everything going with the Ackerman?”

“Mm...? Fine,” answered Eren in a lazy voice.

“‘Fine’? That’s all?”

“Ugh, obviously that's not all. There are things going on and... I don’t know. I don’t feel like thinking about that.”

Armin seemed to decide not to pressure him about it. He remained silent for several minutes in which Eren began to fall into a pleasant slumber. When he heard his friend's voice again, he opened his eyes and noticed that there were no more dancing shadows on the ceiling. There was much more light than before, for Armin lit a gas lamp after the candle was consumed. That could only mean one thing: conversation spirits, although not on Eren’s part. Feeling heavy eyelids, he let out a faint moan at the lack of compassion.

“Are you listening to me?”

“… mmhm,” no, he wasn’t listening. What did Armin even say before that question?

“I was telling you that Mikasa is... quite peculiar. The first time I saw her, she gave the impression of being a very self-confident person, one of those who knows perfectly who they are, what they want in life and how to obtain it. A woman who does what she pleases and who always achieves what she wants.” Tired, Eren looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Seriously? Armin had to start analyzing Mikasa aloud right now? Did it have to be now? “That night at the Reiss’, her way of walking, talking and gazing could bewitch anyone. Even though she was wearing a mask, when she asked me about you... I admit that she left me kind of dazzled.”

He tried to liven up and ruminate what Armin had just said. He was struck by the use of the word ‘bewitch.’ So, did Mikasa's performance even leave Armin dazzled? Or bewitched. Eren was already aware that the girl knew how to act and that she was good at it, however he hadn’t managed to actually see her in her role as a femme fatale, or whatever that was.

He visualized Mikasa with her satin red gown, the way it contrasted with her pale skin and her black hair. He recalled her dramatic fake fall and the people’s reaction. Unintentionally, the corners of his lips curled upward lazily. He used to think that the paraphernalia had been Kenny's idea because he doubted Levi would suggest something so dull, and the same with Mikasa, but now that Eren knew her better, he suspected that it had been her idea, that the trip over was the result of improvisation. Adding to what Armin had just said, it may have been her desperate attempt as she noticed Eren wasn’t one of those easy to ‘bewitch’ fools. Not that Armin was a fool, of course, but he’d always been the most onlooker of the two, and running into a presence like Mikasa's must have heavily influenced his dumbfounded reaction.

“Mikasa was looking for your full attention that night, Eren, and she got it.”

Eren clicked his tongue.

“She got my attention thanks to a ruse, not because I got ‘bewitched’ by her or anything like that,” he said as he adjusted his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. “She knew I'm a doctor and that I’d obviously check on her in case she got hurt.”

“Still, she did,” continued Armin, observing him with suspicion. “Sometimes I wonder if you at least noticed her cleavage.”

Eren didn’t say anything about it, but he _had_ noticed her cleavage. Since he wasn’t a pervert, he didn’t focus on it and instead focused on making sure that the then-stranger was doing well. He remembered he had even asked her if she was pregnant, meaning he’d implied that Mikasa had slept with someone and... well, that wasn’t something he wanted to even think or imagine right now.

“... I saw her again one morning, with you,” Armin was still talking. “She behaved distantly and even contemptuously. Her attitude was able to make me feel like an insignificant worm she could crush at any time. Her very presence intimidated me. But today...” He paused. “Today I saw _just a_ _girl_.”

Eren knew exactly what he meant. He’d gone through a similar confusion.

“Yeah... Mikasa is just a girl who can crush you at any time, whenever she wants,” Eren murmured with a trace of pride. His eyelids felt sandy, but he wasn’t that sleepy anymore. “Though I think she likes you and she won’t do such a thing.”

After all, she had even laughed with Armin.

“Ah, but it wasn’t just Mikasa's change of attitude what I found interesting today,” Eren could almost hear the smile in Armin’s voice. “But also the way you interact with her. I notice you two got way closer.”

Eren opened his eyes and felt his brow knit, but he tried to relax the muscles of his face.

“That's because we are friends now,” he said in a carefree tone, though he stupidly felt like a child who had just been caught in the middle of a mischievous act. “And we have to pretend that we’re a couple in public. You already know.”

He knew Armin and knew when he wanted to wheedle something out of him. During the afternoon, Eren had heard him make certain comments that he preferred to ignore. Or pretended to ignore, because he remembered very well that one remark about the ‘bath of cold water’ he seemed to need.

He needed to change the topic. Before Eren could open his mouth to say something else, Armin gave him the sharpest, most evil smile he’d seen on him in a long while.

“You staring at her like an idiot and throwing her into the river with you, was that also part of the act?”

“Hey,” Eren protested, sensing the heat that had gripped his face. “I didn’t stare at her like an-”

“Sorry, I actually wanted to say: like a _lovestruck fool_.”

_What?_

Eren gaped. He wasn’t... no. Definitely not. Nothing like that. Armin was just bothering him. He surely hadn’t even been able to see his face from where he was when everything happened.

“I don’t…” he stirred under the sheets. And how dare he call him a _fool_? “It was an accident!”

“Fine, don’t raise your voice. Yes, yes, you're right, it must have been a simple accident,” Armin conceded with such a mocking and annoying tone that Eren narrowed his eyes. “It had been years since you rode a bicycle. You lacked practice and should have concentrated more on the road instead of on your companion.”

“You know what? I’m done with this conversation,” he growled, turning his back on him with a curt pull of blankets.

Eren truly was tired and wanted to sleep, not to continue talking nonsense. The fucking bicycle, the river and those things. It was all an accident, it didn’t happen because he was a... silly idiot who stared at Mikasa like a fool, no.

And the... ‘lovestruck’ part? That was too much. Armin couldn’t be serious.

“It's funny because even your ears are red and your mom used to say that-”

“Stop talking. I'm trying to sleep. Turn off the light already.”

“At least you don’t deny it.”

“Armin. Shut up.”

Armin sighed and turned off the lamp.

“You're acting like a child, Eren, but I understand,” he said softly. “We can finish this conversation another day.”

 

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

 

“Things are very different,” Alina muttered. Her bandaged hands ran down her short hair from the nape of her neck to her forehead, over and over again, in an anxious gesture. “Too different.”

Alina was sitting by the window, claiming that she wasn’t sleepy yet even though it was already past midnight. The nurse in charge of preparing her for sleep tonight had gone to ask for Ymir's help almost two hours ago, surpassed by the resistance of the mysterious patient.

Ymir came closer to her and bent down to catch up.

“What’s different?” she asked. It was the first time she heard Alina say something like that.

Alina glanced at the floor, her hands still on her head. She was silent for a long time and seemed to make a huge effort to sort out the chaos that must have been inside her head. Her face contracted, her brow creased and her eyelids tightened.

“Where…? Where is my sister?” she asked in an almost inaudible whisper.

According to the file, Alina didn’t have a sister, but Ymir wasn’t so insensitive as to contradict someone in her condition.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What's your sister's name?”

“She...” Alina abruptly closed her mouth and looked around, as if she was seeing the room for the first time. “Where am I?”

Ymir took a deep breath.

“You’re in Yarckel’s Asylum, west of Mithras. This has been your room since you were transferred to this place months ago.”

She watched as the woman's expression disarmed and tears spilled languidly over her cheeks. Despite having been working with people with mental problems for years, seeing Alina crying as if she had just become aware of her situation made Ymir feel a twinge in her chest. Besides, there was something about her that reminded her of Historia. She didn’t know if it was a physical resemblance or something deeper.

When Alina gazed at her with bright and lucid eyes, Ymir knew this was the real person under the veil of madness. The one she’s already seen before.

“I-It was my father, right?” Alina asked, wiping her tears with bandaged hands, straightening in the armchair as she had done before her hair got cut again. “He sent me here. He is hiding me as if my existence ashamed him and the whole family.”

“I don’t think Mr. Todenhöfer is-”

“Todenhöfer?” Alina repeated, displeased. “I don’t know any ‘Mr. Todenhöfer’”

“Mr. Todenhöfer is your father, Alina.”

Alina's blue eyes again filled up with tears as she shook her head gently. Suddenly, a painful and ironic smile appeared on her lips.

“I should have known something like this would happen,” she mumbled. “An asylum... another name...” she chuckled.

Ymir didn’t know what to say. It was the first time that Alina talked about such varied things and for so long.

“You have to help me,” she pleaded. “You have to- You have...”

“How?”

Alina returned her hands to her head, letting out a small whimper.

“I-I'm not... crazy,” she sobbed as she seemed to resist something trying to take hold of her. Her eyelids tightened with force. Tears flowed and dripped onto her lap as they converged on her chin. She opened her eyes suddenly, as if she had just witnessed something terrifying. “They are... they are dead. They are dead…”

Ymir had to grab Alina’s wrists to keep her from biting her hands while, once again, she heard her repeat the same old thing: "It doesn’t work."

 

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

 

Mikasa glanced around drowsily and a little dazed, not recognizing the place where she was. It was a small room, with a desk, a chair, and a pile of books stacked on the floor under the window. An old straw hat hung on the white wall. She rubbed her eyes and she spotted her suitcase in a corner. Eren had left it there when they had both climbed to the second floor with their clothes soaked.

Sighing, she ran her fingers through her hair, feeling knots and a rough texture. She would have to wash it and use balm to untangle and soften it. Mikasa got out of bed and the wooden floor gave a small crunch when she put all her weight on her bare feet. She walked toward her suitcase to get a towel, comfortable clothes, soap, body lotion, shampoo and balm for her hair. On the way to the bathroom she noticed there was no one in Armin's room, whose door was wide open. What time was it? Maybe she’d slept too much. She didn’t hear any noise from the first floor. As soon as she entered the bathroom, she quickly took off her pajamas and got into the bathtub.

A quarter of an hour later, Mikasa was already dressed and was carefully removing all the moisture she could from her hair with a small towel.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she only saw Armin drinking coffee in silence while reading the newspaper. There were no signs of Eren. Armin greeted her in a good mood when he saw her and, standing up, he excused himself to go prepare her breakfast, even though Mikasa refused by saying that she could prepare it herself.

“Please, I want to do it. You're my guest,” he said with a warm smile as he pointed to the table for her to sit down. “I'll be back.”

It was easy to realize that Eren's best friend was a good guy with the naked eye. Mikasa had already perceived it the first time she saw him weeks ago.

Armin had smart and kind blue eyes. His face was so beautiful, smooth and clean that he looked younger than he really was. As far as Mikasa knew, yesterday he’d turned twenty-one but he could easily pass for a boy of about seventeen years old. His voice didn’t sound as masculine or adult as Eren's, but less deep and more jovial instead, and that also contributed to him not looking his age.

The boy came back a short while later with a mug of hot chocolate and a piece of cake, which tasted much better than the day before. It was wonderful. When he offered her another piece, Mikasa was unable to refuse the offer. She didn’t care if he later thought she was a glutton. If she didn’t eat more of that delicious cake she would regret it later, she knew it. The moist spongy cake was filled with strawberries and cream, with a slight trace of alcohol behind each bite.

“Eren always finds and chooses the best food. It must be some sort of acquired talent,” Armin commented and, at Mikasa's confused look, he explained: “In order not to waste a lot of time cooking, he got used to eating out or buying food and taking it home. When he studied and worked, he paid a woman who was his patient for her to bring prepared food to his apartment almost every day.”

“To his apartment in Mitras?”

“Yes, the same one you were once already at... unless you've been there with him on another occasion I’m not aware of,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

Mikasa shook her head. She almost didn’t remember how Eren’s apartment looked like and, since they were at it...

“Where is Eren?” she asked with some urgency, mentally berating herself for not having done it before.

It was as if her brain had just woken up and only now had deigned to issue a warning signal, even though she’d noticed Eren's absence before she had begun to stuff herself with cake.

Armin shrugged and tossed a lump of sugar into a cup, as Mikasa wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“He went to do medical visits.”

Mikasa pushed her chair back, standing up. Why had he left without her? Supposedly Levi had also told Eren that they had to go together everywhere.

“I need you to tell me exactly where he is, or an approximation.”

“I'm sorry, but I don’t know. He just told me he'd be back before noon,” he glanced at the wristwatch he wore on his left wrist. “That would have to be in less than forty minutes.”

“At what time did he go out?”

“At nine something...”

“Shit,” Mikasa muttered.

Eren had been out for a couple of hours now, there was no certainty about his exact location and she had slept more than intended.

“He'll be fine, a lot of people here have him in good esteem. Also Shiganshina is a quiet place where nothing really happens,” Armin said with a smile in an attempt to reassure her, but soon seemed to realize his mistake.

Mikasa's face hardened.

“He’s not told you anything?” she asked in an unkind tone.

“A-about what happened to your-?”

Her body tensed immediately.

“No,” she interrupted him dryly. She grimaced and brought the tips of her fingers to her forehead. "I wasn’t talking about that. Don’t even mention it.”

“I'm sorry, Mikasa.”

Armin had lowered his eyes, seemingly ashamed. Mikasa tried to lessen the tension in her body and gradually lowered the defenses she’d just raised by reflex. She was being unfair. Her own reaction and question must have led him to think about what happened to her family. Eren had told him, obviously. Maybe he told him they were going to go to the outskirts of Shiganshina and explained him the reason behind that trip. Either way, the fact that Eren told her secrets to someone she barely knew wasn’t something that made her happy, but she couldn’t help but understand it. At least in some way, since even though she had never had a ‘best friend,’ she did have a vague idea about what having one implied.

“It has nothing to do with me,” Mikasa clarified, a bit more relaxed. “But if he hasn’t told you anything about everything else, then I won’t either.” She wasn’t going to reveal other people's secrets. “What you should know is that neither Shiganshina, nor any other place in Paradis is completely safe for Eren anymore, that's why I was assigned with the mission of protecting him.”

Armin seemed to be trying to figure out what Mikasa didn’t want to say, until suddenly he gave her a slight nod.

“A while ago, Eren explained to me something about it,” his cheerful tone had completely disappeared. He glanced at his watch again. “But I'm sure nothing will happen to him today. He’ll arrive at any moment now.”

Oddly enough, Mikasa also had the feeling that Eren would be fine. Still, it bothered her not to be fulfilling what she should do. And Eren wasn’t fulfilling with his part either... The very reckless went out without telling her, without telling anyone around which sectors he would exactly be around and therefore Mikasa didn’t even know where to look out for him, not to mention he could be inside any house. She clenched her hands and glanced toward the front door. She was going to reproach him for his lack of judgment as soon as he returned.

“The truth is that Eren didn’t want to wake you up,” Armin said. “He was about to knock on your door, but he didn’t do it.”

“Well, he should have done it,” she grumbled, dropping reluctantly on her chair.

Mikasa leaned one elbow on the table and her head in the palm of her hand. She watched her mug. There was some cold chocolate at the bottom. She grabbed a spoon, stirred the brown liquid and drank it. There was nothing else to do but wait. If she went looking for Eren, desperately yelling out his name, she would call everyone's attention and not in a way that would please her or serve either of them.

“Eren just wanted for you to rest,” Armin's voice had livened up again. “He even asked me to make as little noise as possible so that nothing bothered you, you know?”

Mikasa's face remained neutral despite the fact that a pleasant warmth flowered in her chest and a slight tingling made an appearance in her stomach. Why did Eren have to be so... tender? That is to say, he could also be exasperating, something she had learned during the ferry trip after he ate her chocolate bread in one bite and burst of laughter when he saw her reaction. But undoubtedly Eren's tenderness, his concern, was the greatest danger to her simply because it disarmed her. He had even made her cry once when he gave her that hair ornament while they were in Trost.

Although, if she was sincere, Eren was dangerous to her for more reasons besides his tenderness.

As if it were an invocation, the aforementioned entered Armin’s house preceded by a slight metallic rattle of keys. Absentmindedly, Eren set his medical briefcase aside. Mikasa was already at close distance to him when he reacted.

“… Mikasa?”

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pushed him without much delicacy, until she pressed him against the wall, leaving scarce centimeters between them. When she looked up she met with his intense green eyes, which blinked in surprise.

“Listen up. First of all, I didn’t need to rest,” she began to say, monotonous, trying to ignore the way her own heart tried to betray her and ruin the necessary admonition. She tried to stay as firm as possible, as Levi would. “Secondly, you should have woken me up to accompany you. Third, you are irresponsible. Knowing the current situation, you can’t and shouldn’t be overconfident.”

Eren's gaze descended to the hand with which she held him and then rose again, somewhat hesitantly, to her face.

“Mikasa...” he said her name as if he were short of breath, even though she wasn’t cutting off his breath at all. “Could you let go?”

Mikasa let him go as soon as he asked.

 

_x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_

 

Armin cleared his throat and Eren glared at him before he could say anything that would turn the moment into something uncomfortable. He adjusted his shirt’s collar as his heartbeat recovered its normal rhythm. Mikasa's attitude had thrown him off once more, particularly because this kind of situation didn’t happen since... well, the night of his kidnapping. That time he tried to escape despite knowing it was useless and Mikasa, in a blink of an eye, grabbed him by the arm, slammed him face-first into the wall and muttered a cold warning. Now that she grabbed him by the clothes, pushed him without preamble against the wall and her telling him off felt very different, even though the basic reason was somewhat similar to the first time.

“And? You won’t say anything?” asked Mikasa crossing her arms.

Eren gave her an annoyed look, an inevitable reaction to a posture that reminded him of a mother scolding her son.

“What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know, it could be something like ‘I won’t do it again,’ or an approximate.”

“Fine,” Eren sighed and his face took a bored expression. “It's been clear to me that you think you don’t need to rest and that you can function perfectly with a few hours of bad sleep. It’s also become clear to me that, since you don’t care about your own health, you don’t expect anyone else to care either. Honestly, Mikasa, I think you are the most irresponsible of the two. _Knowing the current situation_ , you shouldn’t only be alert to the external danger signals, but also to the internal.” He unabashedly leaned his index finger on the center of Mikasa's chest, from which she took a step back as if it just burned her. “Yesterday you looked like a person with narcolepsy. That imperative need to sleep consumed you and was beyond your desire to stay alert during the day.”

Mikasa opened her eyes slightly. She looked down at the floor and seemed to weigh his words, pursing her lips.

“Alright. I guess you're right,” she replied, avoiding to make eye contact with him as if she were ashamed, however she soon raised her chin in a cocky mood, very Ackerman of her, and spoke again. “But it doesn’t exempt you from the fact that you’ve exposed yourself irresponsibly. If you care so much about my health as the good doctor you are, then perfect: let me sleep a few hours more, but don’t leave without me. You could have waited for me. We have to go together everywhere, or has Levi not made it clear to you?”

“Yeah, it's just that sometimes I think more about the mutilation threats.”

She frowned. “What?”

“I'm kidding,” Eren said with a tight lopsided smile.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Armin was still too attentive to this strange exchange. Of course he would... Eren bet the crook was enjoying it and that he would subject him to an interrogation as soon as they were alone. His stomach constricted.

“Well, I'm not kidding,” Mikasa hissed, wary of his lie. “Don’t go out again without me, understood? You have to take this seriously.”

If Mikasa knew to which extent even his own brain was taking this seriously, she would slap him. The general situation with this girl was becoming stressful for Eren, in a way.

“Fine, and you don’t keep on lying to yourself about your lack of need to rest.”

Unintentionally, the tone of his voice projected his inner exasperation and Mikasa seemed somewhat bewildered by it. She scrutinized his face as if she was trying to decipher what was it that he wasn’t saying.

“In that case, it's obvious that you also need an urgent rest, Eren, or you wouldn’t have thrown us in the river yesterday.”

He heard Armin giggle.

_Damn it._

“Ah... so you're mad about it,” he felt how the heat rose to his face. “I already told you I was sorry, and I’m still sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize again. It was an accident and I'm not angry about that,” she took a step towards him. “But... I think you haven’t slept enough either, otherwise how did we end up in the water? You weren’t focused on the road.”

No, he wasn’t focused on the road because he lost the notion of what he’d been doing by staring at her, though he didn’t have to admit something so awkward out loud, much less in Armin’s presence. He suspected he’d piss him off until the end of times for having been right.

Yes, he had stared at Mikasa like a fucking idiot and still couldn’t understand why that had happened. Or perhaps he didn’t want to understand it.

“Yeah, I’m in need of more sleep,” he accepted reluctantly, taking a glance at the table. “Hey, you two didn’t eat all the cake, right?”

“There’s more in the kitchen,” informed Armin who, to his surprise, wasn’t looking at him with a mocking smile as he had expected.

 

 _x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_  

 

Eren wanted to stop by to see old Hannes and introduce Mikasa to him as his "girlfriend", but they didn’t find him at home. He figured the man could be out at the canteen of the moment getting drunk since early with his cronies as always, because the only other possibility was that he was working in a place from which he could be fired at any time. Hannes used to have a stable job as a military police until, unfortunately, his excesses with the drink cost him dearly. To top it off, his wife, fed up with everything, left him for another man a short time later.

Although Hannes was a human disaster, he was a very good guy and both Eren and Armin held him in high esteem. They let Mikasa know it. She had returned to her calm, observant and silent self as they walked through the neighborhood.

“We could check if he’s around later, or tomorrow,” Armin suggested.

Eren and Mikasa still hadn’t agreed on when to take the trip to the mountains, so he thought the best would be to have the next day free in case she wanted to go.

“Let's check again later,” Eren said.

They left the narrow street and continued walking for a few minutes until they returned to the center of Shiganshina. It was around three in the afternoon on a Saturday and, as usual, there was a lot of movement and noise in the area. A young man carrying a small child in his arms cordially greeted Eren, who took a few moments to recognize him as one of the many people he’d attended in the past. Then someone else greeted him and he couldn’t remember them at all. Eren didn’t mind, for it was impossible to remember everyone.

The problem was that, as they meandered through the streets, Eren also didn’t remember the exact moment when his arm ended up around Mikasa's narrow waist. His hand rested on her hip, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He held the position for a while longer and then released her in a phlegmatic and somewhat reluctant movement. Removing his arm suddenly would only have shown his sudden awkwardness. Eren wanted to smack himself on the face when he realized this was one of the suggestions he’d read on the damn list of Hange Zoe that he had, unwittingly, put into practice.

He looked sideways at his female companion. As if sensing his sudden scrutiny, she gazed back at him. The exchange didn’t even last a second, as they quickly broke eye contact without uttering a single word.

Neither of them looked for the other to walk together again as the supposed couple they were. Actually, it wasn’t necessary for them to do it right away... Maybe none of this was necessary, in the slightest. It was ridiculous after all. Even the way his heart had begun to behave in relation to this whole crap was completely ridiculous, and yet...

Hearing someone shout Armin's name brought him out of his inner turmoil.

“Did you hear that?” Armin asked, searching for the source of the voice. “I think someone called me.”

“It's that woman,” Mikasa said, pointing at an old three-story house on the other side of the street. “The redhead who is leaning out of one of the windows on the second floor.”

Eren spotted a face that became familiar to him, despite the distance.

“I think it's... Hannah Diamand,” he entwined his fingers with those of his supposed girlfriend and nodded at Armin to cross the street. “Let’s go.”

“Eren! Armin!” The girl smiled from above, evidently happy that they responded to her calls. “I go downstairs right away!”

“She looks like the pregnant woman who yelled your name yesterday, when we got here,” Mikasa commented in a low voice.

“Pregnant?” Eren repeated.

Hannah opened the door and yes, his old classmate was definitely pregnant. Just by seeing her, Eren calculated she had more than thirty weeks of pregnancy, but it could also be that she was already at full term. The size of a pregnant woman's belly varied quite a bit from case to case.

She let them get inside her house after greeting them and asking if they had time to join her to drink tea. After the failed visit to Hannes, none of the three refused the invitation. As expected with any old acquaintance, though also with strange snoopers, the girl inspected Mikasa with ill-concealed interest. Eren simply took the chance to introduce her as his girlfriend. He managed to do it with ease, without hesitation or awkwardness in between. Mikasa also did her part without complications.

Although Eren had already introduced her as his girlfriend on previous occasions, he’d only done so in front of people with whom he had no connection other than the professional relationship between patient and doctor. Managing to do the same in front of people he knew since he was a child involved another type of social pressure, to say the least.

Eren seized the occasion to apologize for having ignored her when she called his name the day before, but Hannah said there was no problem and offered apologies on her part, admitting she must have realized Eren was in a hurry and had other things to do. From there, the relaxed chat that took place between the four of them flowed in various directions, from greetings to Armin for his birthday to the typical and superfluous observations on the weather while they drank a nice lemon-tea in the soberly decorated living room.

For a moment Eren feared Armin would lose his tongue and tell Hannah about the fucking incident at the river, especially when he made a suspicious comment on the benefits of taking a cold water bath at any time of the year.

“Isn’t it, Eren?” the blond asked with a harmless little smile as his eyes shone with malice.

“Yeah,” he answered, undaunted in appearance.

“Margot, I have to thank you because you helped to solve one of Eren’s mysteries,” said a radiant Hannah to Mikasa. “At school we had our doubts about him. We thought that he would end up being an inveterate bachelor because he showed no interest in girls, even though several of them liked him. One of our classmates was convinced that Eren wasn’t interested in women, but in men...” She gave Armin a meaningful look. “There were rumors, you know?”

Eren almost rolled his eyes. He would have to get used to having his acquaintances and friends bring up this kind of things in front of Mikasa, right?

Anyway, at least the others seemed to be amused.

“Ah, yes, and there was also the rumor about me actually being a girl,” Armin added, shrugging.

Mikasa sweetly glanced at him. "It must have been because you're a very pretty boy, Armin.”

His best friend's face lit up like a street lamp and murmured a timid ‘thank you’ to the compliment of who was supposed to be _his_ girlfriend, and which Hannah seconded. Something stirred inside Eren. A feeling he’d felt the day before after his friends finished their own bike ride, although this time he noticed the remarkable presence of a share of irritation because, if he and Mikasa were playing to be a couple, then it wasn’t appropriate of her to openly tell that kind of praise to another man that wasn’t him, right? Nor would it be well seen if Eren fawned upon another women that weren’t his girlfriend.

“Hey...” he grumbled, leaning towards Mikasa. They both shared the same sofa and were sitting so close their thighs almost touched. “And what about me?”

It sure sounded childish and risible, but he still couldn’t help it. He knew that the sudden whispers taking place between Hannah and Armin were due to his question, and he didn’t care.

Mikasa's lips drew a nervous smile in the midst of a slightly alarmed expression, as if she had suddenly forgotten completely how to act her role. However, she managed to recover.

“What do you mean, Eren?” she asked, caressing her hair in a gesture between shy and flirty.

Eren opened his mouth and, realizing he was basically asking her to flatter his physical appearance in public, he pursed his lips. He preferred to keep quiet and stop behaving like an idiot. What the hell was happening to him? Luckily, nobody made comments about it and Armin even did the favor of changing the subject and focus on Hannah, her pregnancy and her husband, Franz, who had also been one of their classmates.

The visit lasted a bit over an hour. The trio retreated with the promise that they would come by again to greet Franz before Eren and _Margot_ left Shiganshina in a few days.

“I can hardly believe that this is their first baby,” Armin murmured.

They were making the journey back home. They agreed they were going to try to see Hannes another time.

“Yes, with how gooey and sticky they were, I thought those two would be parents before turning fifteen,” Eren said, somewhat thoughtful. “There are many couples who have trouble conceiving, though.”

“I thought the same thing...” Armin nodded.

Eren wondered if at some point his old classmates ended up thinking they were never going to be able to have children. With moist eyes, Hannah had only implied her pregnancy was a pleasant surprise, so he was sure that she and Franz had gone through many difficulties before they could achieve it. The good thing was that now they only had to wait between two and three weeks to fully become parents.

“How long have they been together?” Mikasa asked.

“Those two? Since they were thirteen, I think, so they've been together for more than eight years.”

“Since they were twelve,” Armin corrected him.

“Whatever, I don’t pay attention to that.”

“Eren, please. If you didn’t pay attention, you wouldn’t even remember it.”

“Huh? Don’t you ever recall random stuff?” Eren huffed. “Besides it’s hard to forget about Hannah and Franz, with how annoying they were...”

Armin chuckled.

“Now that I remember, you were the only bitter person who shouted at them that they looked like a married couple and that they had to stop behaving as such.”

“Because they were insufferable.”

Eren had had the misfortune of having to sit right behind them during the last months of school and he saw and heard them - which was the worst - smooching almost every time the teacher turned to write something on the chalkboard. It was disgusting.

“I think it's cute,” said Mikasa.

“What's cute?” questioned Armin, amused. “Eren feeling overly annoyed by a couple?”

“ _Armin_ ,” Eren growled.

Mikasa smiled. Her cheeks were rosy. She took a moment before answering.

“That Hannah and Franz have been together for so many years, that they are now married and are going to have a child.”

Eren stared at her. This time not like an idiot, but with genuine curiosity.

“Yes, it's cute,” Armin agreed.

Maybe Mikasa wanted something like that, and here they were, pretending to be a couple. She wasted her time with him in the name of a mission that perhaps didn’t even make sense to her, instead of being with someone she was really in love with and with whom she wanted to start a family, if that was what she wanted.

A twinge of guilt, and something else, pierced Eren’s stomach.

Eren only managed to feel a bit more normal again once he was alone with Armin. Mikasa had retired to her room with the excuse that she was tired. He couldn’t help but follow her with his gaze until her feet disappeared climbing the last steps.

He started drinking with his best friend around eight o'clock at night. They had drunk enough beer. Armin had the tip of his nose reddened and his lips stretched in a constant smirk. Sometimes he chuckled alone, but he didn’t say what he was thinking and Eren didn’t want to ask him either. He suspected Armin would annoy him for his slip-ups of the day.

“You wanted her to tell you that you're handsome, right?” Armin snickered while drinking beer directly from the bottle. A stream of liquid trickled down his cheek and he wiped himself with the sleeve of his sweater. "You're seriously behaving like a kid, Eren.”

Eren ground his teeth. Where had he left the wine?

“It's not that,” he denied, flushed, and stood up to look behind the couches. “Tell me, how would it look if I flattered another woman in front of Mikasa?”

“It depends.”

“On what?”

“You can flatter someone's general appearance in an educated way and there's nothing wrong with that. It’s even well seen.”

Eren found a bottle of red wine in one corner of the floor and half hidden behind the curtains. He went to the kitchen and returned with a couple of glasses and a corkscrew. He left things on the coffee table. Armin accepted a glass of wine.

“The issue, Eren, is that you never flatter anyone's appearance and that's why it seems odd to you. In those snobs’ parties that you tend get invited to, they always flatter each other,” Armin continued in an affected voice. “ _Oh, Mrs. Krause, you look lovelier than ever tonight._ ”

Eren grimaced. It was true. He’d had to witness that shit over and over again in all those boring evenings. Some of the guests even boldly flirted with each other, but the worst was seeing married men holding women who weren’t their wives, taking them through the darkened corridors and then get lost inside some empty room.

He drank a long swig of red wine that left a fruity taste in his mouth.

“You see? It’s common. Inappropriate would be to talk about some specific physical part, such as...”

“Yes I know, Armin,” he muttered, slightly knitting his brows. “Deep down, I meant something like... I don’t know. If Mikasa and I were really a couple...” He sighed and took another sip. “Nevermind.”

Armin asked him to refill his cup and drank the contents in a hurry. At that rate, he would be completely drunk in a few minutes, but Eren chose not to interfere. Armin could do what he wanted in this second birthday celebration. If he fell asleep on the couch, then he would put a blanket on him and everything would be fine.

“You want that?” he asked, dragging the words a little.

Eren filled his own cup, rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

“Want what?”

“To be Mikasa's boyfriend, but for real.”

“Pfft, what the hell are you talking about?” Eren dodged quickly. He unbuttoned the first buttons of his shirt. Alcohol had him heated. “Of course not. She and I... We're just friends.”

Armin laughed. It was a lazy, ironic laugh.

“I'm resisting all I can to not give you the good and bad news about it, my dear and stupid friend.”

“You're drunk,” Eren dismissed.

“The question is, why aren’t you drunk yet?”

“I'm working on it. It's what I want the most right now.”

“I think what you want the most is something else, but well.”

“Alright, Armin. Enough with the games,” he groaned, running his hands through his hair. “I really need to talk about something that has nothing to do with her. Something extremely serious.”

He didn’t want to think about her, or what is in the fucking list, nor to continue feeling or behaving like a complete idiot despite having all his senses intact. It had been too much for today. He was tired and fed up with his brain malfunction without a drop of alcohol in his blood, and the sudden pangs in his chest and stomach that were related to Mikasa.

In the midst of his drunkenness, Armin settled on the sofa and made the remarkable effort to keep an eye on what he would finally tell him. Filling his own cup a third time, Eren took a deep breath and drank a long, slow gulp of red liquid. The alcohol was finally having some effect on his body, apart from the heat.

“It's about the Reiss... and my father.”

And so the words arose from his throat, more fluid every time. Eren told him everything he knew now and that he hadn’t been able to tell him before. Everything he suspected about his father's death and what might possibly come. He told him about the existence of the Legion, of which Professor Hange Zoe was a part of, a revelation that caused a small gasp of surprise in Armin. Eren kept drinking as he spoke. He spoke until his tongue got numb, until he was no longer able to articulate words clearly, his vision became slightly foggy and his movements turned heavy.

When Eren finally stopped, Armin drank half a bottle of wine. At some point during the night, both fell asleep - or unconscious - because of the drunkenness.

Eren snapped his eyes open and jerked up in the couch when he heard violent knocks on the door.

“What... the fuck is going on?” He whispered with a dry mouth.

A few hours must have passed because, although he was still drunk, at least he was more aware of his surroundings now. He became dizzy when he sharply turned his head towards Mikasa who, wearing nothing else but her nightgown, went down the stairs in a couple of nimble jumps and gave a quick glance to both him and Armin. The latter was still asleep despite the racket.

She gestured for him to stay where he was and opened the door ajar. An icy breeze crept into the room and Eren's lethargic body shuddered involuntarily.

“Who are you and what do you want?” demanded Mikasa to the source of the knocks. Eren could hear a fluttering breath from the other side. “It's four in the morning.”

“I’m so sorry!” said an anguished male voice. “Please, I’m looking for Eren Jaeger, it's an emergency! Please... I'm Franz... m-my wife… Hannah is unwell and needs urgent help!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was going to be at least a thousand words longer but I decided to leave the rest for the next one, of which I've already written over six thousand words since past year (lol). In general it's an emotionally demanding one so I've been writing it slowly.
> 
> I hope you had enjoyed the update. Armin being a visionary while Eren and Mikasa are... well, them. A pair of dorks.
> 
> Ah, and don't think that because in these last couple of chapters I've centered mostly in developing the relationship between EM then I've forgotten about the plot "behind" it. Everything in its time. Let's say the guys are in some deserved small vacations and you are too.


End file.
